Epidemiology and Economic Benefits of Treating
Goat Coccidiosis
Tauseef-ur-Rehman,
Muhammad Nisar Khan*, Izhar Ahmad Khan1 and Mansoor Ahmad
Department of
Parasitology; 1Department of Rural Sociology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan
*Corresponding author:
khanuaf@yahoo.com
Abstract
A study was carried out to determine the
prevalence of Eimeria species and to compare the efficacy of Toltrazuril and
Amprolium against coccidosis. Of the total 121 fecal samples examined for
Eimeria, 67 (55.99%)
were found infected with four species of Eimeria. Amongst the identified
species, E. ninakohlyakimovae was the
commonest one (49.25%)
followed were E. arloingi, E. caprina and E. hirci with prevalence of 44.78, 25.37 and 19.40%, respectively. Kids had significantly (P<0.05) higher
prevalence of Eimeria than adults. Higher prevalence of Eimeria was observed in
female goats. Forty five Eimeria positive animals were randomly
divided into three equal groups, i.e., groups A to C.Group A was treated with Amprolium (2g/40kg BW) and group B was treated
with Toltrazuril (15mg/kg BW) for three days each while no drug was given to
Group C. On day 7 post treatment, all goats of group B stopped shedding oocysts
while 8 (53.33%) goats of group A stopped shedding oocysts. After the treatment,
goats of group B gained 2.2
kg body weight over a period of 15 days compared
1.2 kg weight in group A. The lowest weight gain (0.5 kg) was in goats of group C (untreated control). No significant difference
in milk yield of the three groups was recorded. It can be concluded that control
of goat coccidiosis through single treatment of Toltrazuril is economically
beneficial.