Ovine coccidiosis and associated risk factors in Minya, Egypt

Abstract

Background Coccidiosis is a potential protozoal disease of economic importance in sheep worldwide. The current study aimed to detect the prevalence of ovine coccidiosis and identification of the recovered species in Minya, Egypt. Three hundred and fifty sheep from Minia, Egypt, were coprologically examined for the occurrence of Eimeria species oocysts by using the standard floatation technique. Results Oocysts were detected in 180 (51.43%) animals. Mixed infection was recorded in 37.14% (130/350) and single infection was revealed in 14.29% (50/350) sheep. The prevalence of coccidiosis was significantly higher in young sheep. Fourteen Eimeria species were detected; Eimeria bakuensis, E. webybridgensis, E. ahusta, E. intricata, E. granulosa, E. faurei, E. ninakohlyakim-ovae, Eimeria coitae-like, E. parva, E. pallida, E. marsica, E. crandallis, E. ovinoidalis and E. arloingi. The most predominant Eimeria species was Eimeria parva (14.57%; 51/350) followed by E. ovinoidalis (14.0%; 49/350), E. granulosa (8.29%; 29/350), E. bakuensis (7.14%; 25/350), E. intricata (5.43%; 19/350), E. faurei and E. webybridgensis (4.86%; 17/350 each), E. pallida (4.0%; 14/350), E. ninakohlyakim-ovae (3.71%; 13/350), E. crandallis and E. ahsata (3.43%; 12/350 each), E. marsica and E. arloingi (1.71%; 6/350 each). The least abundant species was E. coitae-like (1.14%; 4/350). Conclusion Fourteen Eimeria species were recovered from sheep in Minya, Egypt; Eimeria bakuensis, E. webybridgensis, E. ahusta, E. intricata, E. granulosa, E. faurei, E. ninakohlyakim-ovae, Eimeria coitae-like, E. parva, E. pallida, E. marsica, E. crandallis, E. ovinoidalis and E. arloingi. Eimeria parva was the most common while E. coitae-like was the least. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for the occurrence of E. coitae-like in sheep in Egypt. Prevention and effective control programs should be strictly followed to avoid economic losses resulted from the coccidian infection.

Identification of sheep eimerian parasites, Eimeria crandallis and Eimeria faurei, employing microscopic and molecular tools

“…The E. crandallis oocysts was the most common species in affected sheep with high infection rate, which agreed with previous reports (Bakunzi et al, 2010; Hassanen, 2020; Kaufmann, 1996; Kheirandish et al, 2012; Rommel, 2000, p. 19), while, E. faurei oocysts were detected in low intensity (Gómez‐Bautista et al, 1996). However, the ellipsoidal shape of E. crandallis oocysts is different from those described by Ayana et al (2022) and Mohamed et al (2022) for spherical oocysts, Hafeez et al (2022) and Shaheed and Al‐Aziz (2023) for subspherical oocysts. Moreover, variations in the size of oocysts (length and width) were observed, which is a common issue for Eimeria species within the same species which might be related to several factors including host and parasite metabolism as described by Long and Joyner (1984).…”

“…Eimeria infection is the major concern of ruminant-coccidiosis around the world and induces a reduction in animal productivity (Mohamed et al, 2022) T A B L E 3 Estimates of evolutionary divergence between sequences. OR511893.1_Eimeria_crandallis 0.009 0.000 0.009 0.009 0.009 0.000 0.000 0.002 0.007 0.007 0.002 0.007 0.000 0.009 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 OR511901.1_Eimeria_faurei 5.0 0.009 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.009 0.009 0.007 0.010 0.010 0.007 0.010 0.009 0.003 0.010 0.007 0.007 0.009 0.010 0.009 OR511892.1_Eimeria_crandallis 0.0 5.0 0.009 0.009 0.009 0.000 0.000 0.002 0.007 0.007 0.002 0.007 0.000 0.009 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 OR511902.1_Eimeria_faurei | 319 morphological evaluation and DNA molecular tools (Hassum et al, 2007).…”

“…Eimeria infection is the major concern of ruminant‐coccidiosis around the world and induces a reduction in animal productivity (Mohamed et al, 2022). Due to few data available about this protozoan disease ‘coccidiosis’ in Saudi Arabia, this study focused on studying the Eimeria species in sheep.…”

Microscopic Detection of Coccidiosis in Small Ruminants in Wasit Province, Iraq

“…Coccidiosis is economically important in many animal farms, especially small animals, because of the clinical effects of parasites that cause diarrhea, dehydration, obesity, anemia, and medical costs. Also, it causes a loss in performance and even mortality, especially when it is complicated by bacterial infections (Dash et al, 2020;Mohamed et al, 2022). Recently, 16 and 15 coccidian species were identified in goats and sheep, respectively, and varied largely according to the time of formation and growth of oocytes, site of infection as well as the oocyte maturation (de Macedo et al, 2019;Mohamed et al, 2023).…”

Hematological and biochemical indicators of lambs’ blood after the use of chemotherapeutic agents for spontaneous eimeriosis

“…Traditionally, the fight against Eimeria in sheep is achieved through careful observance of zoohygienic requirements, as well as the introduction of coccidiostatic drugs into the feed or vaccination with live or weakened parasites (Mohamed et al, 2022). Necropsied sheep showed mild mesenteric lymphadenomegaly, diffuse proliferative enteritis in the small and large intestines, and mucosal thickening.…”