Comparative efficacy of anticoccidical drugs in coccidiosis of broiler chicks

Coccidiosis of domestic fowl is a parasitic disease that infects poultry drastically and can cost the pastured poultry producer much in the course of a year. Two hundred forty, day-old-broiler chicks were purchased and were randomly divided in eight groups, containing thirty birds in each group. Decoquinate , maduramicin ammonium , monensin sodium , salinomycin sodium , a live attenuated vaccine, and trivalent live attenuated vaccine, was provided to the day chicks of six groups, respectively. The chicks of last two groups served as infected non-medicated and uninfected non-medicated, respectively. Feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, mortality and oocyst count per gram feces were recorded during the conduction of the experiment. Among treated groups, performance of salinomycin group was significantly better (p