A comprehensive overview of coccidiosis in chicken

Abstract

Coccidiosis is the main parasitic disease resulting from the intracellular protozoan that targets each different part of the intestinal tract leading to destroy in poultry. For this reason, coccidiosis induces an enormous economic loss in the poultry industry. Eimeria life cycle is complicated and comprised of exogenous and endogenous stages inducing an inflammatory response which results in enteric damage associated with diarrheal hemorrhage, disorder digestion of feed and nutrient absorption, dehydration, blood loss, mortality. Hence, it is very important to understand the information of Eimeria parasites for elimination and treatment. This disease has been controlled by various anticoccidial drugs and vaccines as the most common management practices. However, not only the occurrence of drug resistance due to anticoccidial drugs but lack of a guarantee of safety with vaccine use, has led to the development of alternative strategies to control coccidiosis. For these reasons, phytogenic compounds are emerging for the control and prevention of poultry coccidiosis to alternate previous methods. The main aim of this review is to provide an overview of coccidiosis including etiology, morphology, life cycle, pathogenicity, clinical sign, diagnosis, control and prevention.