Prevalence of poultry coccidiosis in and around Jimma town, south western Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross sectional study design was conducted from November, 2014 to April, 2015 to estimate the prevalence of poultry coccidiosis in and around Jimma town, south western Ethiopia and to assess its relationship with different risk factors. Simple random sampling technique was conducted to select birds found in and around the town. Test tube flotation technique was used for qualitative study of coccidial oocyst and descriptive statistics was utilized to summarize the data.The association be-tween the prevalence of the disease and risk factors was assessed by Chi-square. Out of the total 384 chickens examined, 156 (40.62%) were positive for coccidian parasites. The prevalence was significantly different between breed ( X 2 = 4.48, P = 0.03), management ( X 2 = 18.00, P = 0.00) and age ( X 2 = 19.04, P = 0.00). However, no statistically significant difference ( X 2 = 1.19, P = 0.28) was found in the prevalence of coccidiosis between sex. In conclusion, the present study showed that cocci-diosis was an important disease of poultry in the study area with increasing prevalence in younger birds and those kept under intensive management system and therefore, good poultry management systems such as; treating diseased poultry, maintaining cleanness of environment and applying strict biosecurity measures have to be practiced in different poultry production systems.