SOJ Veterinary Sciences

A cross sectional study was conducted during October 2013 to February 2014 to identify and determine the prevalence of Eimeria spp. among broiler chickens reared in open and closed systems in Khartoum, Khartoum North, and Omdurman, Khartoum State, Sudan. A total of 90 broiler intestines were collected from slaughtered broilers at slaughterhouse or farms and examined by direct smear and standard floatation test to detect Eimeria species. The overall prevalence of Eimeria spp. was 5.5 % of the examined samples. Two Eimeria species were identified viz, Eimeria tenella and Eimeria acervulina. E. tenella was the dominant species with an infection rate of 5.5 % followed by E. acervulina 2.2 %. The prevalence of Eimeria spp. in open and closed systems was 4.4 % and 6.7 %, respectively. The overall prevalence of Eimeria spp. was 10 %, 6.7 % and 0 % in Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman, respectively. No significant associations (P ˃ 0.05) were observed between different locations and management systems employed of the examined chickens. Further epidemiological studies should be conducted to determine the prevalence and identify Eimeria spp. in all states of the Sudan.

Keywords: Prevalence; Eimeria Spp; Broiler Chickens; Open and Closed Systems; Sudan

Coccidiosis is an intestinal parasitic disease that has the greatest economic impact on poultry production. The annual worldwide losses due to coccidiosis exceed two billion Euros for prophylaxis and medication [1]. Additional economic losses include mortality, morbidity, and poor feed conversion of birds that survive out breaks [2]. Eimeria, an intracellular protozoan parasite belongs to the Phylum Apicomplexa, is the causative agent of coccidiosis. Seven species of Eimeria are known to infect chickens. These are E. acervulina, E. brunetti, E. maxima, E. mitis, E. necatrix, E. praecox and E. tenella [3,2]. Prevalence and identification of Eimeria species are useful tools for prevention and control of coccidiosis [4]. The prevalence may vary from less than 10 % to more than 90 % in broilers worldwide [5,6,7,4].

In the Sudan, five Eimeria species were identified during an outbreak of coccidiosis in a farm at Khartoum. These included E. tenella, E. maxima, E. mivati, E. parecox and E. brunette [8]. Reported by in a survey conducted in Khartoum State, Sudan that coccidiosis was widespread and three species were identified E. tenella, E. mivati and E. necatrix. Recently, E. tenella was isolated and identified in broiler chickens in Khartoum State Khaier, et al. 2015a [9,10]. In addition, E. acervulina was isolated and molecularly characterized in broiler chickens in the same State [11].Little information is available on infection rate of poultry coccidiosis in Khartoum State. The present study aimed to detect the prevalence of Eimeria spp. in broiler chickens in open and closed systems in the three cities of Khartoum State (Khartoum, Khartoum North, and Omdurman).

The study was conducted in Khartoum State from October 2013 to February 2014 in some of the broiler farms. According to, two production systems are dominated in Khartoum; these are the closed and open systems [12]. The closed system production is adopted mainly by the intensive broiler production units of medium and large size. These units represented 10 % of the broilers farm and produced 95.4 % of the total broiler production [12]. The open system is accounted for about 90% of the broiler units in the State; it participated by less than 5 % of the total production [12].

The study population consisted of broiler chickens from Khartoum State comprising the three cities; Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North.

Six farms of different types, three open and three closed were randomly selected and visited once during October 2013 to February 2014 from each city. Five intact intestines from each farm were immediately collected after slaughtering of broilers either at slaughter house or farms. A total of 90 broiler intestines were collected and examined for the presence of Eimeria spp. The samples were labeled by writing the name of farm, date and address and brought in ice boxes to the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum for examination and identification of coccidian oocysts.

The intestine of slaughtered chickens was placed in a tray. Double ligature was applied to separate different parts of the intestine into: duodenum, jejunum, ileum and cecum. Each part of the intestines was opened by scissor, its contents were collected in a beaker. The contents of the intestines were examined for the presence of Eimeria spp. oocysts by direct smear and standard floatation method [13]. Eimeria spp. oocysts were purified and identified according to the site of infection, oocyst morphology including size and shape after sporulation and sporulation time [14].

The SPSS computer program was used to analyze the data. Results were presented in the form of frequencies. Chi-square test was run to investigate association between farms location, type of production system and prevalence of Eimeria spp. Results were considered significant at P ≤ 0.05.

A total of 90 broiler intestines were collected and examined for the presence of Eimeria spp. oocysts from poultry farms in Khartoum (30), Khartoum North (30) and Omdurman (30). The overall prevalence of Eimeria spp among broiler was 5.5 %. (5/90). Two Eimeria spp. were identified these were: Eimeria tenella in the cecum and Eimeria acervulina in the duodenum and jejunum. E. tenella showed the highest prevalence 5.5 % followed by E. acervulina 2.2 %. The highest prevalence of Eimeria spp was in Khartoum City 10% followed by Khartoum North City 6.7 % and Omdurman City 0 % (Table 1). No significant difference in infection rate with Eimeria spp. was found among the three cities of Khartoum State (P ˃ 0.05).

Three out of 30 broiler intestines were found positive for E. tenella 10 % in Khartoum City (Table 1). In the closed system 3 out of 15 intestines were positive for E. tenella 20 % with significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) (Table 2). On the other hand, no parasites were found in 15 broilers in the open system (Table 2). In Khartoum North City, 6.7% (2/30) intestines were infected with E. tenella and E. acervulina (Table 1). The prevalence of E. tenella and E. acervulina was 13.3 % in the open system (Table 2). However no parasite was found in 15 broilers in the closed system (Table 2). No Eimeria spp. was detected in broiler intestines in Omdurman City in the both open and closed systems (Table 2). In Khartoum State, the overall prevalence of Eimeria spp. in the open and closed systems was 4.4 % (2/45) and 6.7 % (3/45), respectively (Table 3). Mixed infection with E. tenella and E. acervulina was detected in broilers of the open system, while the closed system chickens were infected only with E. tenella.

In the present study two Eimeria spp. were identified in naturally infected broiler chickens in Khartoum State. The species were E. tenella and E. acervulina. These results are in agreement with previously reported by except that E. necatrix was not detected [9]. These results suggesting that those species of Eimeria are widespread in most countries where poultry are produced on a commercial basis [15,16,17,18].The overall prevalence of Eimeria spp. among broiler chickens in Khartoum State was 5.5%, this rate is low compared with previous studies in other countries, in Ethiopia 20.6 %, in Egypt 21.24 %, in Zaria, Nigeria 33.3% and 37.1 %, 78 % in Jordan, 55.9 % in Iran, 71.9 % in Pakistan , 88.4 % in Argentina and 92 % in Romania [15,16,19,20,21,22,23,24]. The low prevalence of the Eimeria spp. reported in this study could be attributed only to that our study was conducted during the dry season (winter).

The current study showed that E. tenella was the dominant species (5.5 %) followed by E. acervulina (2.2 %). This in conformity with the findings of [15,25,26]. These authors reported that E. tenella is the most prevalent species in Africa, Middle East and Asia. However, disagrees with who reported E. acervulina was the most prevalent species in Iran as in Europe, Australia and North America [27]. The present study observed high prevalence of Eimeria spp. in the closed system 6.7 % compared with the open system 4.4 %. This agrees with previous reports that coccidiosisis most common to bird under intensive management especially those on deep litter and this could be attributed to relatively higher oocyst accumulation in the deep litter and intensive rearing conditions [28,29,30]. Mixed infection with E. acervulina, E. tenella was observed in the open system in Khartoum North. The same findings were observed in China, in small-scale farms where more than one Eimeria species existed in most of the samples [31]. In conclusion the present study reported two Eimeria spp. viz E. tenella and E. acervulina in broiler chicks reared in open and closed systems in Khartoum State, Sudan. Further studies should be conducted to determine the prevalence of Eimeria spp. throughout the year in Khartoum State. Researchers are argued to achieve surveys in all States of Sudan to determine the prevalence of Eimeria spp. and to identify the present species.

The authors thank chicken farms’ owners for allowance collecting the samples.

The authors declare that no interest conflict.

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