Coccidiosis specialist: ‘Understand’ the products you’re using

What came first came first: The chicken, the egg or the persistent coccidiosis infection?

Coccidiosis has been around as long as any poultry producer can remember. And despite decades of experience with the tenacious parasitic disease, it hasn’t gotten any easier to manage. In fact, it’s become even more challenging for some modern poultry operations.

“We really are having issues [with coccidiosis] because we’re going to more antibiotic-free programs,” says Greg Mathis, PhD, of Southern Poultry Research, Athena, Ga.

He says coccidiosis is still the poultry industry’s No. 1 problem, followed closely by necrotic enteritis.

“And we still have a very limited amount of products and the most important thing is to understand…how to use the ones we’re using, because resistance will develop to any anti-coccidial drug,” he says.

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