CULTURE OF EIMERIA SPP. OOCYSTS OF TURKEY POULTS AND THEIR SPECIES IDENTIFICATION

In our country, in recent years, much attention has been paid to the development of poultry meat production, especially turkey breeding. In the conditions of industrial turkey breeding, when a large number of poultry is kept in a limited area, there is a high risk of parasitic diseases, one of which is eimeriosis. Knowledge of the species composition of Eimeria on a particular poultry farm is of great practical importance for the reasonable development of effective methods to control invasion and to monitor Eimeria resistance to the drugs used. Eimeria species were identified after the end of sporulation. To assess the course of sporulation of Eimeria oocysts during their cultivation, at least 500 oocysts were examined from each Petri dish every six hours under a high magnification microscope (x400) paying special attention to their morphology. When examining and studying litter samples 24 hours after they were put on cultivation, sporulated Eimeria oocysts of turkeys were detected in all six dishes in 37.8% to 60.6% of those examined, and the average rate was 51.6%. At 48 hours after the start of cultivation, the average Eimeria sporulation rate was 83.4%. The results of species identification of Eimeria oocysts showed that the following Eimeria species were found in young turkeys on the poultry farm of the Tula Region: Eimeria meleagrimitis (60.0%), E. gallopavonis (25.0%), E. meleagridis (10.0%), and E. adenoides (5.0%).