Prevalence of Coccidiosis in Chickens in Some Selected Poultry Farms in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Poultry production is an important component of the Nigerian Livestock subsector, providing employment, income, and animal protein for the urban and rural dwellers as well as manure for crops. Coccidiosis is the most prevalent intestinal parasitic disease of poultry worldwide. Birds of any age are susceptible to coccidiosis but most birds get infected in the first few weeks of life. The mode of transmission is feco-oral and the infection can easily be transmitted through ingestion of sporulated oocysts. The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of coccidiosis in some selected poultry farms in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The objectives included: to determine the prevalence of coccidiosis through sample collection of faeces and intestine; to outline questionnaire on knowledge, preventive measures, and history of coccidiosis and; to identify coccidiosis in farm. In this study, semi-structured questionnaire was administered randomly to six selected major poultry farms in Ilorin, Kwara State, to determine their knowledge and awareness towards chicken coccidiosis and their adopted prophylactic practices. Three hundred samples (two hundred and fifty faecal samples and fifty intestinal samples) were collected from chickens from 6 farms from January, 2024 to June, 2024. The samples were subjected to direct faecal wet mount and floatation technique. Out of the collected and tested 300 samples, 32.67% (98/300) was positive for the presence of Eimeria oocyst. Results obtained from this study showed the prevalence of coccidiosis as a disease of chickens in the study area. There is need for further strategy to reduce the infection rate of coccidiosis in this area of study.