Preliminary detection of mites and coccidia with their zoonotic potential in meat-farmed rabbits in three districts in Selangor, Malaysia.

Mites infestation and gastrointestinal parasites including coccidia are common problems reported in pets, petting farms and farmed practices. sp. and sp. could be a potential zoonosis from rabbits to human. Detection of mites and coccidia with their zoonotic potential in meat-farmed rabbits from three (3) commercial farms in Selangor were investigated. Tape impression, fur pluck, skin scraping and ear swab tests were used for mites detection and faecal samples was used for coccidia examination by using McMaster's technique and the identification of spp. was further analysed by sporulation technique. The overall prevalence of mites and spp. (oocysts) in rabbits were 51.85% ± 0.38 (standard deviation; S.D.) and 76.47% ± 0.42 respectively. was the most frequent mite found (25.92% ± 0.44), followed by and . Nine spp. were identified and the oocysts of shows the highest prevalence (64.71% ± 3.97) followed by and . There was a significant difference ( = 0.013) where large-scale farm has a higher prevalence of coccidia than small scale farms apparently due to the excessive stocking density as coccidia are easily transmitted among rabbits through ingestion of sporulated oocysts. In conclusion, mites and coccidia are commonly present in the commercial rabbit farms, thus control and preventive measures should be executed to reduce the incidence of parasites. The zoonotic mites and detected in this study could be regarded as a public health concern especially when handling the rabbit.