Evaluation of anti-coccidial drug sensitivity against experimental coccidiosis in broiler chicks

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of sulphaclozine sodium and toltrazuril for the treatment of experimentally induced caecal coccidosis. Day-old chicks (n=96) reared in a coccidia free condition divided into six Groups (A, B, C, D, E and F) each having 4 subgroups of 4 chicks in each. At the age of 23 days the chicks were infected with 104 sporulated oocysts of E. tenella except control Group F and treated for 4 consecutive days from 3 days post infection. Then treatment was given in Group A (2 gm/L), B (3 gm/L) with sulphaclozine sodium and in Group C (1 ml/L), D (1.5 ml/L) with toltrazuril. Group E was maintained as infected, but untreated and Group F as negative control. After treatment Group A gained almost similar weight with Group F. A significantly higher (P<0.05) weight gain was recorded in Group A and B compared with Group C and D.The infected untreated chicks passed a large number of oocysts from day 5 till the end of the experiment. Chicks receiving sulphaclozine sodium (Groups A and B) had large oocysts count compared with the Groups C and D treated with toltrazuril but lower than the untreated chicks. At the end of experiment the lowest oocysts count was found in Group D (31.32 x 106 ) and highest in Group E (53.59 x106 ). Hence this study recommends to use sulphaclozine sodium and toltrazuril for chicken coccidiosis.