Effects of Aureo-S-700R on sporulation, viability and infectivity of ovine coccidial oocysts.

Sporulation rates of normal oocysts and oocysts isolated from lambs infected with coccidia and fed Aureo-S-700R for 25 days were studied at different temperatures. The viability and infectivity of the latter were also investigated. Temperatures of 5 and 10 degrees C inhibited sporulation of oocysts, but when the same oocysts were subsequently incubated at 25 degrees C, they sporulated. At 35 and 40 degrees C, sporulation was initially fast, but death and degeneration of oocysts occurred at these temperatures after 3 days. Normal oocysts sporulated faster and in greater numbers than oocysts isolated from medicated lambs; both kinds of oocysts sporulated best between 20 and 25 degrees C. Lambs inoculated with oocysts from medicated lambs passed fewer oocysts for a shorter period of time than lambs inoculated with normal oocysts. The former lambs gained more weight, passed better formed faeces, ate better and had higher PCV and haemoglobin values than the latter.