Prevalence, Associated Risk Factors and Molecular Characterization of Eimeria Species Affecting Backyard Poultry of Jammu Region, North India

Abstract

The present study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2019 to know the prevalence of coccidiosis in backyard poultry in Jammu, Samba and Udhampur districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, North India. A total of 600 pooled faecal samples collected from backyard poultry were examined for presence of Eimeria oocysts. Morphometry and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based amplification of ITS-1 gene was carried to characterize the Eimeria species infecting the backyard poultry of the study area. An overall prevalence of 28.5% Eimeria spp. infection among backyard poultry birds was recorded. Among the seasons, highest prevalence was recorded during rainy season (32%) with significantly (p<0.05) high oocyst excretion (1.77±0.01) and lowest during summer (19.3%) with low oocyst excretion (0.17±0.006). Young birds upto 3 months of age were found to be more susceptible to infection than older birds, with a significantly (p<0.05) high prevalence percentage of 38.02. Morphometry with COCCIMORPH software revealed presence of Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima, Eimeria necatrix, and Eimeria tenella species with prevalence rates of 16.5%, 3.6%, 21.3%, and 27.6%, respectively.The amplified fragments of ITS-1 gene presented different sizes of Eimeria spp. viz. E. acervulina (321bp), E. tenella (278 bp), E. maxima (145 bp) and E. necatrix (383bp). The study concluded that although backyard poultry didn’t show clinical form of coccidiosis but may act as source of potential reservoir.