EVALUATION OF POLYETHER IONOPHORES AGAINST COCCIDIOSIS IN BROILER CHICKEN

The efficacy of three polyether ionophores viz. salinomycin, monensin and maduramicin was evaluated in poultry. Dayold chicks (n=350) were randomly divided into seven groups of 50 chicks each. The drugs were administered as feed premix from day one onwards. The chicks at 14-day of age were initially infected with 20,000 sporulated viable oocysts of Eimeria tenella and challenged with 40,000 sporulated oocysts of the same batch at 28th day of age. The parameters taken for evaluation of the efficacy of the drugs were mortality rate, weight gain, lesion scores, oocysts per gram of faeces and faecal score during post infection as well as post challenge period. The results revealed that the anticoccidial effect of all the three drugs viz. salinomycin, monensin and maduramicin @ 60, 100 and 5 mg/kg of feed, respectively was almost similar, however, the performance of maduramicin was better in comparison to salinomycin and monensin. It could be concluded that all the three coccidiostats, viz., salinomycin, monensin and maduramicin were equally effective in controlling caecal coccidiosis in poultry birds. However, maduramicin proved to be slightly better in performance and cost effective as it gave better results in checking mortality and development of lesions at comparatively smaller dose rate.