Prevalence study of poultry coccidosis in small and large scale farms in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia

We conducted a cross sectional study from October 2009 to March 2010 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the objective of identifying prevalence of poultry coccidiosis in small and large scale production systems. A total of 384 fecal samples from female Rod Island Red chickens were taken and a flotation technique was employed to harvest coccidian oocysts. The result revealed that 89 (23.1%) are positive for coccidia oocysts. Unlike Yeka and Akaki kality sub cities, Kolfe sub city showed significantly higher (P < 0.05) prevalence of coccidiosis in both small and large scale production systems (?2 = 45.887 and 62.28) respectively. Moreover, result of coccidiosis by age group indicated that significantly higher (P < 0.05) prevalance of coccidiosis (?2 = 9.255) was registered in chicken above 8 weeks of age in large scale production system (LSP). However, significant variation was not noticed by age group in small scale production system (SSPS). Significant variation in terms of clinical coccidiosis were not observed (p > 0.05) between age groups in both SSPS and LSPS. Variation in management system and objective of the farms might be accounted for the observed variation in the prevalance’s mentioned above.