Topical concept of coccidiosis control in chickens

Coccidiosis is the most significant parasitic disease in poultry in contemporary systems of breeding and utilization of their production potentials. It usually inflicts substantial economic damage, regardless of whether it is exhibited in the clinical or subclinical form. In parallel with the industrialization in poultry breeding, measures for the control of coccidiosis have developed in parallel, so that the prevention of this disease today is founded on four basic principles: zoohygiene, genetics, the implementation of anticoccidial drugs, and vaccination. Hemoprophylaxis is the most represented in the prevention of coccidiosis, as a very efficient measure. In Serbia, ionoform antibiotics, amprolium, halofuginone and sulfonamides, are most often used. However, the application of medicines in coccidiosis control has as a consequence also certain undesired effects, of which the most important are toxicity, incompatibility with other drugs or chemical substances, coccidia resistence, and the presence of residue in poultry tissue. The significance of the immunization of poultry with the objective of their protection from the harmful consequences caused by this protozoozis has been known for several decades now. The implementation of a vaccine against coccidiosis has established its practical importance in the world only in the past decade, when the European Union Commission adopted a five-year plan for studies of coccidiosis and its control through vaccination. In our country, two vaccines have been registered for use in veterinary medicine, and their practical implementation has still not quite become regular practice. Each of the listed control measures also implies certain faults, however. More efficient protection can be provided by possible combinations of the coccidiosis control methods.