Abstract: Coccidiosis causes diarrhoea, dehydration and death in geese. Eastern China is a large goose-raising area in China but the coccidial infection status in geese in this region has not been reported as so far. To understand Coccidia species and infection rate, fecal samples were collected from 146 randomly selected clinically healthy domestic goose populations between August 2010 and July 2011. Oocysts were separated by a floatation technique using saturated saline. Coccidia species was identified by examining morphological features of the sporulated oocysts and further verified through animal regression test. The results showed that coccidian oocysts were detected in 87.67% of the goose population. Eight different species of the Eimeriidae family were identified, namely T. parvula Koltan (90.63%), E. hermani Farr (76.56%), E. stigmosa Klimes (48.44%), E. nocens Koltan (35.94%), E. fulva Farr (15.63%), E. anseris Koltan (9.38%), E. farri Hanson, Levine and Ivens (4.69%) and I. anseris Koltan (4.69%). Among them, the first three species were most prevalent. In addition, 87.50% of the farms had at least two commensal Coccidia species, indicating concurrent infection existed widely in geese. The analysis of coccidial infection with age revealed that the infection mainly occurred in geese older than 30 days and the infection rate increased with ages. In summary, the results suggest that the coccidial infection was common in domestic geese in eastern China and measures for prevention and treatment of coccidiosis were needed for this area.
J.J. Xu, S.S. Wang, D.D. Liu, L.Q. Cao, Y. Li and J.P. Tao, 2012. Prevalence of Coccidial Infection in Domestic Geese in Eastern China. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 1578-1582.