Coccidiosis is parasitic disease that affects bird's intestines. There are different species of this parasite. When they infect chickens, they multiple quickly in the intestines and damage the intestinal lining, preventing the birds from absorbing nutrients from their feed. Chicks are mostly affected. Most older birds have already develop immunity against it. However if the environment is full of coccidiosis eggs, even adult birds can succumb to it.
..
Among the many species of coccidiosis, the 3 that cause the most damage to chcikens are Eimeria (E) acervulina, E. Maxima, E. tenella. Immunity is species specific, that is, birds that are immune to E. tenella may not be immune to other species. So for complete immunity, the birds have to be expose to all the species (e.g. through vaccination or from shredded eggs on the litter).
..
Symptoms includes:
1. Diarrhea and/or blood in feces and/or mucuos in feces.
2. Lethargy (weakness)
3. Weight loss and watery, whitish diarrhea in older birds and hens at point of lay.
4. Poor growth.
5. Drooping and huddling together.
..
Control/Prevention

It is better to control coccidiosis preventively because once coccidiosis strike - even before obvious symptoms appear, the damage to the intestines lining is permanent and it will affect growth and egg production.

To prevent it, medicated feed is used for broilers. The feed contains coccidiosis drug like Diclazuril (at 1ppm or 0.0001% in feed). Other control methods are as follows:

1. Give chicks probiotics for prevention. Probiotics are good bacteria that will kill most of the bad microbes in the chicken's intestine, keeping the gut healthy and making it difficult for coccidiosis to cause damage.
.
2. Vaccinate day old chicks with any coccidiosis vaccine (this is not a must). Non-attenuated coccidiosis vaccines like Cocciva, immucox and Advent can cause lesions and occurance of coccidiosis in birds because they are not attenuated (i.e. not weakened). So you may have to treat for secondary gut diseases (like necrotic enteritis) at 16-17 days after vaccination using antibiotics or probiotics (fishmeal in feed predispose birds to necrotic enteritis). On the other hand, Paracox, Livacox and Viracox are attenuated (weakened) coccidiosis vaccines but they're more costly.

To avoid vaccine failure, make sure that you strictly read and follow the manufacturer's instructions. Note that for coccidiosis vaccines to work, the chicks need access to their feces. Vaccines won't be effective if the chicks are on wire floor. To prevent failure in caged housing, place boards on the wire floor and leave it their for up to 16 days.

3. Use medicated feed for chicks until they build immunity against it. Only do this if you did not vaccinate the chicks against cocci. Giving medicated feed to vaccinated chicks will render the chicks unprotected from cocci. Vaccination is more effective and preferable. But it is very costly. You can do without it.
.
4. Keep the brooder and pen clean and dry. Wetness and warmth encourage coccidosis multiplication. Prevent wet litter.
.
5. Keep water and feed free from droppings.
.
6. Avoid overcrowding
.
7. Practice good biosecurity
.
8. Place drinkers on wire frames so that chicks will not have access to wet spots where cocci easily multiply.
..

Treatment for Coccidiosis
First you have to make sure it is cocci that your birds are suffering from. You need a lab test to confirm this (This isn't a must. In fact, many farmers don't do test. They just focus on the symptoms. The test can be done on dead chicks or abnormal chick droppings. Once you've confirm it is cocci, don't waste time. Start treatment immediately. There are many drugs for coccidiosis. Your vet will recommend one after the lab test. It is important to know that coccidiosis can develop resistance against drugs. This is another reason why a lab test is important.
..
For coccidiosis that causes blood in dropping, some farmers who can't afford paying vets treat with amprolium. Blood usually disappear from the dropping within 24 hours. After 2wks the treatment is repeated to kill newly hatched eggs that escaped the first treatment. This second round must be given after 2wks and not within. There are many brands of amprolium drugs, so follow the manufacturer's instruction. After second treatment (esp. when using amprolium), give the birds multivitamin to replace the vitamin B1 lost during treatment. Multi-Vitamins containing Vit B1 must not be given when treating with amprolium because amprolium work by depriving the parasites of vitamin B1 which they can't do without.

Note: Amprolium is usually combined with ethopabate and sulfaquinoxaline to make it more effective against other species of coccidiosis.

During treatment, antibiotics and multi-vitamins containing vitamins A and K xan be goven to improve rate of recovery and prevent secondary infections.

One day I'll try converting cassava to ethanol. What do you guys think? The ethanol can be use as complete fuel for single cylinder engines like irrigation pump. If you dry it to 99 percent you can mix it with petrol and use in car engine without modification.
..
With the excessive supply of cassava, there is usually glut in different parts of the country. So you can get the cassava at a reasonable price. Another alternative is that you can cultivate your own cassava.

I come across this term when reading something about feed, what does it mean?

Please I need some tips about caring for baby rabbits. I’ll like to eliminate any mortality when I start.

Now my birds fight a lot. How can I stop them? I don’t want it to get worse.

I’ve read so much about fermented feed, but I wonder if anybody here have tried it.

Wow, do you know that you can make a heap of compost and tap the heat generated? You can use it during the cold season to heat up your animals’ drinking water. During cold periods, animals need extra feed so as to keep warm. But by giving them warm water during cold periods, you’ll save some feed cost.

I just want to share with you one way in which you can prevent serious digestive problem in rabbits. If you’re feeding green feeds, never allow them to stand in a pile because they’ll soon become heated and ferment. This can cause serious digestive problems in rabbits. Lastly, to avoid spread of diseases, greens should be place in a manger and not on the floor where they’ll be soiled.

Have you ever own a wooden rabbit cage? What was it like? Did the rabbits eat up the wood? How long does it last?

I'll like us to make a list of disinfectants that are effective against certain viruses and bacteria. We know that it is not all disinfectants that are effective against some pathogens, so let's start the list.

For gumboro, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, chlorine and iodophore-based products are effective. Add yours.

Do you have a sick bird that is so sick that it can't eat? Here is an emergency food to give to help it become stronger while taking her medication.

Sugar + Lemonade (non-carbonated) + milk + egg yolk + honey. If your sick bird(s) can drink, increase water intake by adding fruit juice to their water.

Hello House,

I'm about to commence the construction of a poultry pen (our 1st) a 30ft*120ft to house about 3,200 birds.

The total cost required, as provided by the carpenter & bricklayer, is about N1.9m.

Please how fair is this?

Considering the use of any asset on the farm, some factors come into mind.

First of course is the cost- how much resources is available to the farmer to acquire the asset. This goes a long way to determine the asset that the farmer acquires (affordability).

Also of importance is the durability of the asset, how long can this asset be put to a profitable use on the farm. An accounting measure of this is useful lifespan of the asset which ultimately determines the depreciation charged to the farm operations.

Of course the above discussion does not exclude consideration of the pupose of the asst, enviromental factors, etc.

So how does the decision to buy and operation of imported battery cages brings more benefit relative to the locally fabricated cages?

Let us reason together.

I'm about to commence operations on a layer-poultry farm (5,000-bird take-off). Owing to the nature of my job i can not afford to be there expt for weekends.

I'm aware this is a challenge, but every challenge is summountable.

What practical steps do you advise i take to succees as absentee farmer.

Please advise

Agric business is generally know to be profitable. People start one arm or the other of agriculture for several reasons- some for passio, others see it as a mainstream investment.

To both group of farmers, pilfering by farm personnel could kill passion/drain investment.

Please let's delibrate on measures to put in place to curb this menace.

Dear farmers,

I believe that though Nigeria churns out a great army of graduates from several tertiary institutions scattered all over the country, my little experience has shown that the required skill-set to combat hunger and make agriculture take its place of pride is very SCARCE.

Am I right or have not been patient enough?

I hope you guys know about papain. It is gotten when unripe pawpaw is soaked in water overnight. The white liquid extract is papian. In man, I know that it aid digestion and it it used to make tough meat tender. In chickens, I think it also aid digestion. Are my right?

Good day people. Like how much manure will a chicken produce in a day? Just want to estimate how much fertilizer I can get.

Hello everyone. During a glut, can eggs to frozen to preserve it for a very long time? And how economical do you think it is?

There are various movements against the use of battery cages for poultry. They prefer free range rearing. These groups are so powerful that they have influenced some consumers to start buying products from free range and organic farms. There are even laws in place that force producers to put on their products their rearing method - whether organic, free range etc. Now I’ll like to know your thoughts about this, are chickens in cages really being abused?