[Effects of the administration of anticoccidial vaccines and drugs on intestinal lesions and biochemical variables of broiler chicks challenged with experimental coccidiosis]

Coccidiosis is one of the most important disease in poultry. Since using of anti-coccidial drugs or vaccination are considered as the most common preventive measures of this disease, an experiment was conducted to compare effectiveness of these methods. Nine hundred and sixty day-old male Ross broiler chicks were randomly assigned to eight treatments and fed with a corn-soybean meal basal diet during experimental period. Treatments 3 and 4 received salinomycin and diclazuril as coccidiostate, respectively, but did not immunize. Chicks in treatments 5 to 8 immunized with anti-coccidial vaccines [including Livacox Q, Paracox 5, Livacox T, and Iracox, respectively] by drinking water on 5 days of age. Chicks in all treatments except treatment 1 were inoculated with a suspension of four Eimeria species on 26 days of age. From 28 days of age, blood samples were taken on a weekly and serum concentrations of beta-carotene, albumin, globulin, albumin to globulin ratio, vitamin A, and total protein were measured. One week post-challenged, 6 birds in each treatment were slaughtered and intestinal lesions were scored. The results indicated that the birds fed diets supplemented with salinomycine or diclazuril had the highest concentrations of vitamin A. Serum concentration of alpha-carotene was higher in negative control [non-infected] treatment. No significant differences were observed in relation to other serum biochemical values among treatments. It was concluded that serum concentrations of vitamin A and alpha-carotene could be considered as most important serum biochemical values in coccidian-infected broilers

[Effect of concomitant use of probiotic and coccidiosis vaccine in experimental cocci-dialinfection of broiler chickens]

In order to study the effect of concomitant use of a probiotic with Lactobacillus origin [Primalac] and a coccidiosis vaccine [Paracox-5] in experimental coccidial infection of broilers, 600 day old male broiler chickens were randomly divided into five groups of 120 with four replicates. Groups three, four and five received probiotic, coccidiosis vaccine and probiotic + coccidiosis vaccine, respectively. At 26 days of age all groups[except first group] were challenged orally with a suspension of sporulated oocystes of E. acervulina, E. maxima and E. tenella. Serum carotenoid levels were determined before challenge and 6 days after that OPG of the feces was measured at 6 to 10 days post challenge. Performance parameters were also determined during the experiment. OPG of the treated groups with vaccine and /or probiotic were significantly lower than the positive control [p< 0.05]. It was concluded that and coccidiosis vaccine probiotic with Lactobacillus origin [to some extent] are able to control negative impacts of coccidial infection. In the meantime simultaneous usage of probiotic and coccidiosis vaccine, did not have any interaction with efficacy of the vaccine