Gross and Histopathology of Coccidiosis in Small Ruminants in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Coccidiosis, caused by protozoa of the genus Eimeria, is one of the major parasitic diseases characterized by subclinical contagious enteritis in domestic and wild animals. A total of 125 tissue samples (abomasum, small intestine and large intestine) of sheep and goat were collected from slaughter houses in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts and samples from necropsied small ruminants at Department of Veterinary Pathology, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The overall prevalence of coccidiosis -as single infection was 28.57% (10/35). Grossly, the ileum and jejunum infected with coccidia showed oedema, congestion of serosa and mucosa. In few cases, the ileum showed a single white round raised spot. On histopathological examination, infected tissues showed different developmental stages like early, young and mature first generation schizonts with stage of blastophore formation, early stage of compartmentalization, advanced stage of compartmentalization, early and mature second generation schizonts with stage of merozoite formation, macromeronts, micromeronts, mature meronts, microgametocytes, macrogametocytes, microgamonts, macrogamonts and mature oocysts in the intestinal mucosa mainly in the epithelial crypts.