Study on the Prevalence and Risk Factors of Poultry Coccidiosis in Mekelle Town, North Ethiopia

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1 British Journal of Poultry Sciences 5 (): 6-31, 016 ISSN X IDOSI Publications, 016 DOI: /idosi.bjps Study on the Prevalence and Risk Factors of Poultry Coccidiosis in Mekelle Town, North Ethiopia Brhane Gebrewahd and Nibret Moges Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia Abstract: A cross sectional study was conducted from November 015 to April 016 in poultry farms in Mekelle town, to estimate the prevalence of poultry coccidiosis and associated risk factors in the study area on Bovans brown and Sasso T44 chicken breeds. Fecal samples were taken from selected farms a total of 384 chickens and examined in Mekelle University College of veterinary medicine parasitological diagnostic laboratory. Floatation and McMaster Oocysts counting techniques were performed for qualitative and quantitative examination of coccidian Oocysts, respectively. The statically data analysis revealed that out of the 384 chickens examined, 78 (0.3%) chickens were found positive for coccidian Oocyst. The prevalence of coccidiosis was relatively higher in young (6.1%) than adult (17.%) age groups. Statistically significant difference (P <0.05) was noted between young and adult age groups. However, there were no significant differences between sex and breed groups of chickens (P>0.05). In conclusion, the present study showed that coccidiosis is an important disease of poultry in the study area and further strategy needs for intervention through awareness creation among poultry farms, veterinarians and local society to control and prevent the disease and reduce the economic loss due to coccidiosis. Key words: Bovans Brown Coccidiosis Mekelle Poultry Prevalence Sasso T44 INTRODUCTION poultry consists in exotic breeds selected for their capacity in producing egg and meat; and because of this Poultry is the largest livestock species worldwide. selection, these breeds are much more susceptible to The world poultry population has been estimated to be diseases than the traditional backyard poultry [5]. about 16. billion, of which 71.6 % were found in Three types of poultry production systems are developing countries, producing 67, 718,544 metric tons identified in Ethiopia; these are backyard poultry of chicken meat and 57,861,747 metric tons of hen eggs production system, small scale and large-scale intensive per annum [1]. In Africa, village poultry contributes over poultry production systems [6]. The low productivity of 70% of poultry products and 0% of animal protein intake. poultry can be partly attributed to a range of factors such In East Africa, over 80% of human population lives in as sub-optimal management, lack of supplementary feed, rural areas and over 75% of these households keep low genetic potential, high morbidity and mortality rate indigenous chickens and Ethiopia is not exceptional from due to various diseases. Similarly in the modern this situation []. commercial poultry industry, increased disease and Ethiopia has large population of chickens estimated infections by enteric pathogens are common due to to be million with native chickens of non-descriptive intense raring systems. In Ethiopia, poultry production breed, hybrid of chickens and exotic breed of chickens has been hindered by different prevalent diseases from mainly kept in urban and peril-urban areas representing which Newcastle disease, coccidiosis, salmonellosis and 96.6%, 0.55% and.8%, respectively [3]. From the total chronic respiratory disease are the important one [7]. population of chicken in Ethiopia, 99 % are raised under Poultry coccidiosis is one of these diseases causing the traditional back yard management system, while 1 % significant poultry losses in Ethiopia [8]. It is caused by is under intensive management system [4].Commercial the intracellular protozoa parasite of Eimeria species in Corresponding Author: NibretMoges, Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia. 6

2 the genus Eimeria family Eimeridae order To identify the associated risk factors of coccidiosis Eucoccidiorida and phylum Apicomplexa [9]. Infections in the study area. caused by coccidian parasites have had a major economic impact on the commercial broiler industry in the past MATERIALS AND METHODS several decades. It remains as the most economically significant parasitic infection of the poultry industry, Study Area:A cross sectional study was conducted from worldwide. It is endemic in most of the tropical and subtropical November 015 to April 016 in poultry farms in Mekelle regions where ecological and management town. The town is located North part of Ethiopia at conditions favor an all year-round development and around 783 km away from Addis Ababa. It is located 783 propagation of the causal agent [10]. Infection by km North of Addis Ababa at 39 9`E and 13 30` N at an coccidian sufficient numbers to produce clinical altitude of 000 m a. s. l (meter at sea level). The climate of manifestations of disease is called coccidiosis. A light the study area conforms to that of Ethiopian Highlands. infection that does not result in demonstrable clinical The mean annual rainfall is 619mm, which is bimodal with effects is referred to as coccidiasis [11, 1]. Seven species short rainy seasons occurring from March to May and of Eimeria (E. acervulina, E.brunetti, E. maxima, E. mitis, from mid-september to February. The annual minimum and E. necatrix, E. praecox and E. tenella) are recognized as maximum temperature is 11.8 C and 9.9 C, respectively. infecting chickens. In Ethiopia, E.necatrix, E.maxima and The region covers an area of 54,548.3km. the livestock E.tenella are endemic in all parts of the poultry and affect many young growing chickens [8]. resource of the region consist of 3,596,649 cattle,,570,833 The occurrence of clinical coccidiosis is directly poultry, 1,646,75goats, 1,064,501 sheep, 364,940 equines related to the number of oocysts ingested by poultry at and 13,661 camels representing nearly 10% of the one time, the pathogenicity of the Eimeria species, the livestock population of the country [0]. age of the infected chicken and the management system [13]. The first and most frequent symptoms is at the Study Population: The study was conducted on two beginning yellow diarrhea then become depressed, have exotic chicken breeds (Bovansbrown and Sasso T44) ruffled feathers, the wings droop and tend to huddle layers and dual purpose respectively from selected farms. together [14].Coccidiosis still continues to be one of the Chickens were selected according to their age, sex and most expensive and common diseases poultry in spite of breeds as to be examined for the presence or absence of advances made in prevention and control through coccidian infestation and coccidiosis. Chickens were kept chemotherapy, management, nutrition and genetic under intensive husbandry system. The age was improvement [15, 16]. conveniently subdivided young (-8 weeks) of age and World-wide losses to poultry industry due to adult above 8weeks of age [1]. coccidiosis have been estimated about 800 million $ annually [17]. The major reasons for the economic loss Sample Size Determination: Since the prevalence of include loss of egg and meat production, veterinary drugs coccidiosis in chicken in mekelle town poultry farms has and inputs, managements and litter costs [18]. not been reported, 50% expected prevalence rate was Quantitative losses due to coccidiosis in Ethiopia are not used. In addition, 95% confidence interval and 5% desired well documented, but Kinung hi et al. [19] has reported absolute precision []. that coccidiosis contributes to 8.4% loss in profit in largescale farms and 11.86% loss in profit in small-scale farms.. Regarding the disease poultry coccidiosis in Mekelle This is calculated by using the following formula: poultry farms information is not available as no researcher has been done particularly on exotic (Bovans 1.96 x P exp (1-P exp) n = brownandsasso T44) chickens. The prevalence of the d disease and associated risk factors in Mekelle town were not well addressed yet. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: To estimate the prevalence of poultry coccidiosis in poultry farms in mekelle town. where n= required sample size P exp= expected prevalence d= desired absolute precision (0.05) As a result, 384 study populations will be selected. 7

3 Study Design and Methods: A cross sectional study was done and both qualitative (Floatation technique) and quantitative (McMaster Oocysts counting technique) fecal examinations were conducted. The fecal samples were collected from fresh dropping and put in plastic bottles from each chicken then labeling by using marker and brought to Mekelle University College of veterinary medicine parasitological diagnostic laboratory for examination. During sampling age, breed and sex were recorded. Oocysts in each fecal sample of chicken were detected by using flotation technique using saturated Sodium Chloride solution and counting of oocysts was done by using McMaster counting technique and was expressed as per gram of feces [1]. Simple random sampling techniques was used to select an individual chickens. Data Analysis: The raw data were entered and manage in Microsoft Excel worksheet and descriptive statistic was utilized to summarize the data. The point prevalence was calculated for all data by dividing positive samples by total number of examined samples and multiplied by hundred. The association between the prevalence of the disease and risk factors was assessed by Chi-square A statically significant association between variables was considered to exist if the computed p value as less than 0.05 [9]. All statistical analyses were done using SPSS statistical software version 0. RESULTS Floatation Technique Based Result: A total of 384 fecal samples were examined from exotic chickens reared in Mekelle town poultry farms to determine the presence of oocytes. Out of the total samples, 78 (0.3%) were found to be positive for coccidian oocysts of the Eimeria species (Table 1). According to the stastical data analysis, there was no significance difference in the infection level between the two sex groups (P > 0.05). But the prevalence of coccidiosis was higher in males (1.4%) than in females (19.9%) as indicated in the above (Table 1). Even though the prevalence of coccidiosis was higher in young (6.1%) than in adult (17.%), but the infection was statistically significant between the two age groups (P < 0.05) as indicated in (Table 1). The prevalence of coccidiosis was higher in Sasso T44 breed (0.6%) than in Bovans brown (19.9%), the infection was statistically not significance difference between the two exotic breed groups (Bovans brown and Sasso T44) (P > 0.05). Majority of the chickens were female (69.5%) and adult (65.1%) and the proportion of both breeds were (43.%, 56.8%) Bovans brown and Sasso T44respectively (Table ). Table 1: Number of chickens positive for Oocystsand risk factors (sex, age and breed) Risk factors Number of examined Number of positive Prevalence % Chi-square (x ) P value Sex Female Male Total Age Young Adult Total Breed Bovans brown Sasso T Total Table : Characteristics of the chickens examined for coccidiosis Characteristics of chickens Frequency Percentage (%) Age Young % Adult % Total % Sex Female % Male % Total % Breed Bovans brown % Sasso T % Total % 8

4 McMaster Oocysts Counting Based Result: All oocysts positive samples (78) were examined by McMaster oocysts counting technique to quantify the oocysts burden and determine the severity of infestation. Accordingly, all samples were found to be infested with oocysts number less than 10,000 OPG and hence, the infection level was rated as light infestation. DISCUSSION Coccidiosis is known to be the most prevalent and most important disease of poultry production all over the world. It is a type of protozoan parasitic disease caused by different Eimeria species in poultry. It is also considered as an intestinal disease affecting the small intestine and cecum. From the current study of coccidiosis, the overall prevalence of coccidiosis of chicken in the study area was 0.3%. This result agreed with the findings of Yohannes et al. [3] (17.5 %), Ashenafi et al. [4] (5.8%),Abadi et al. [5] (.3%) and et al. [18] (.58%), at Tigray, Addis Ababa, Kombelcha and Arsi zone, respectively. Moreover this result was also in line with the finding of Diriba et al.[1] how reported a prevalence of (0.57%) in poultry farms in and around Ambo town, Western Ethiopia. However, the present results disagree with the finding of Ermias [6] (56.3%), Migbaru and Abadi.[7] (4.7%), Netsanet[8] (38.5%), Mwale and Masika[9] (41.43%) and Hadas[30] (43%), inadama town, Dire Dawa area, Kombolcha (Ethiopia), Centane district (South Africa) and Gondar town respectively. This variation in prevalence of the disease may be due to epidemiology of coccidian infection and differences in management systems of different poultry farms. As the current study revealed that the prevalence of coccidiosis was almost similar in both female (19.9%) and male (1.6%) sex groups of chickens. But, it was not statistically significant (P>0.05). This result agreed with the report of previous studies Hadas et al. [30]. Who stated that there was no significant variation in the prevalence of coccidiosis between the two groups of sexes of chicken and the prevalence of coccidiosis in male relatively higher than in female?however, this result disagrees with the finding of Diriba et al. [1] and Migbaru and Abadi [7] who reported thata higher prevalence of poultry coccidiosis in female than male. Absence of statistically significant difference between male and female may be due to equal chance of exposure for the parasite infection. The current study indicated that the prevalence of coccidiosis was relatively higher in young (6.1%) than in adult (17.%) chickens. It was statistically significant between the two age groups (P < 0.05).This result agreed with the report of previous studies Hadas et al.[30] and Migbaru and Abadi[7] Who stated that there was a significant variation in the prevalence of coccidiosis between the two age groups (young and adult).as indicated in most published literatures, significantly higher prevalence of coccidiosis is observed in young than adult birds as former immunity is not well developed [15]. The disease appears to reach climax at 5-7 weeks of age and as age exceeded 7 weeks, most birds will develop immunity and increase resistance to the disease[9]. However, this finding was disagreed with report which stated that all ages of poultry are equally susceptible to infection [31]. This study also indicated that the prevalence of coccidiosis was almost similar in both Bovans brown (19.9%) and Sasso T44 (0.6%),but relatively higher in Sasso T44 than Bovans brown breeds of chickens. But it was statically not significant between the two exotic breeds of chickens (P > 0.05).The present result agrees with the record of Diriba et al. [1] and Gari et al. [18] who report that no association was found between breeds and infection rate of coccidiosis. However, this result disagrees with the result of Hadas et al. [30] who reported that there was a spastically significant between the exotic breeds of chicken (P< 0.05). Thus, no significant natural resistance variation was observed between Bovans brown and Sasso T44 breeds to coccidiosis under natural infection [3]. This may be due to equal chance of exposure to the coccidian infection as well as both breeds were kept under the same management practice. The result of current study revealed that the level of infection at the study area was indicated as light infection (< 10,000 OPG). This result disagrees with the Yohannes et al. [3] finding, who reported severe infestation (? 15,000 OPG) and medium infestation (> 10,000 OPG) infection of coccidiosis in Tigray, North Ethiopia. This difference may be due to epidemiological and management differences in different farms. CONCLUSION The result of the current study showed that different risk factors have contributed for the occurrence of poultry coccidiosis infection in the study sites. From these sexes, 9

5 age and breeds are the most common factors. Coccidiosis 4. Tadelle, D., T. Million, Y. Alemu and K.J. Peters, 000. is almost similar prevalent between Bovans brown and Village Chicken Production System in Ethiopia: use Sasso T44 breeds in Mekelle poultry farms. In conclusion, patterns and performance evaluation and chicken despite the reduction in the prevalence of coccidiosis in products and socio- economic functions of chicken. the present study, coccidiosis is a major burden to DebreZeit Agricultural Research Centre, DebreZeit, poultry producers and veterinary health professionals. Ethiopia.Livestock Research and Rural Coccidiosis is highly prevalent between young and adult Development.15, Org. co/irrd/ age groups in Mekelle town poultry farms and to be one irrd15/ 1/tade b/5/. htm. of the main risk factors for the prevalence of coccidiosis 5. CIRAD, 005. Investigation of poultry diseases in in this area. The occurrence of coccidiosis in different age Ethiopia.Mission report, the French Agricultural categories has statistically significant but in sex and breed Research Centere for International Development categories were not statistically significant differences. th th (CIRAD), 9 June-7 July 005, pp: Floatation and McMaster Egg counting techniques were 6. Yami, A. and D. Tadelle, The status of poultry performed for qualitative and quantitative studies research and development in Ethiopia. D.Z.A.R.C. respectively. The farms have different management Research Bulletin, 4: practice and biosecurity measures. Also chickens were 7. Abebe, W., T. Asfaw, B. Genete, B. Kassa and overcrowded in the floor type of house and the local P.H. Dorchies,1997. Comparative studies of external society has no awareness to the prevalence of coccidiosis parasites and gastro-intestinal helminths of in that area. Generally, poultry coccidiosis is still one of chickens kept under different management system in the important health problems in the study area. and around Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Rev. Med. Vet., 148: Therefore, based on the above conclusion, the following 8. Safari, M., H. Kinung, T. Getachew, W. Hafez, recommendations are forwarded: K. Moges and G. Mathios, 004. Assessement of Biosecurity practices should be a primary concept in Economic impact caused by poultry coccidiosis in the prevention and control of coccidiosis. small and large scale poultry farm in Debrezeit, The farms should have good management practices Ethiopia International Journal of poultry Science, like dry and clean litter, clean feeders and drinkers, pp: good ventilation and hygienic conditions. 9. Taylor, M.A., R.L. Coop and R.L. Wall, 007. The farms should avoid overcrowding and mixing Veterinary Parasitology. 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: different ages of chickens in the same house. Blackwell Publishing, pp: Awareness should be created among the society 10. Obasi, O.L., O.J. Ifut and E.A. Offiong, 006. An regarding to the occurrence of the disease. outbreak of caecalcoccidiosis in a broiler flock post Newcastle disease vaccination. Journal of Animal REFERENCES and Veterinary Advances, 5(1): Charlton, B.R., 006. Coccidiosis. In: Avian disease 1. Gueye, E.F., 005. Gender aspects in family poultry manual. 5th ed. India: International book distributing management systems in developing countries. In: company in association with American association of XXII World s Poultry Congress, 8-13 Jan 004, avian pathologist, USA, pp: Istanbul (Turkey). World s Poultry Science Journal, 1. Conway, D.P. and M.E. Mckenzie, 007. Poultry 61: Coccidiosis, Diagnostic and Testing Procedures.3rd. Kitalyi, A.J., Village chicken production ed. Ames, Iowa.Blackwell Publishing, pp: systems in rural Africa, Household food security and 13. Allen, P.C. and R.H. Fetterer, 00. Recent advances gender issue. FAO Animal Production and Health in biology and immunology of Eimeria species and in Paper No. 14. Food and Agricultural Organization of diagnosis and control of infection with coccidian the United Nations, Rome, Italy, pp: 81. parasites of poultry. Cl. Microbiol., 15: CSA, 011. Agricultural sample survey report on 14. Kahn, C.M., 005. The Merck Veterinary Manual 9th livestock and livestock characteristics. Addis Ababa, ed. White house station, N.J., U.S.A.: Merck & CO., Ethiopia,. pp: 99. INC, pp:

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