Intestinal parasitism is a major stress factor leading to malnutrition and lowered performance
and production efficiency of livestock and poultry. Coccidiosis is an intestinal infection
caused by intracellular protozoan parasites belonging to several different species of
Eimeria. Infection with coccidia parasites seriously impairs the growth and feed utilization of
chickens and costs the US poultry industry more than $1.5 billion in annual losses. Although
acquired immunity to Eimeria develops following natural infection, due to the complex life …