2.The ewe, although immune to clinical disease, harbors the parasite in its intestinal tract. Therefore, initial transmission of coccidiosis to the lamb occurs via the ewe. Lambs, once infected, then contaminate each other. Prevention of clinical coccidiosis in lambs necessitates targeting of the ewe flock.  Prevention in purchased feeder lambs requires targeting infected lambs.

      3.Transmission of coccidiosis occurs via oral ingestion of the parasite. Adult ewes, which innocuously harbor the parasite, pass the infective stage of the parasite (oocysts) in their manure. Fecal contamination of hay, grain, bedding, pasture, teats, water troughs, creep feeders, etc., are all sources of infection.  Signs of clinical disease develop about 17 days after infection with pathogenic levels of oocysts. This 17 day Aincubation period@ is often helpful in determining when exposure occurred and how to prevent future exposure in your specific production system. It also helps to illustrate just how early oocysts infect lambs in a winter lambing system and why medicated  creep feeds often fail to prevent clinical disease (lambs are not eating medicated creep feed when contaminated very early in life). Furthermore, the importance of preventing the asymptomatic ewe from contaminating the lambing barn should be obvious.

     4.Transmission of coccidiosis to lambs favors warm, wet environmental conditions.  Coccidiosis is seasonally related to when a flock lambs. Clinical disease typically erupts during transition from winter to spring. Outbreaks are often related to seasonal variations in rainfall.

     5.Coccidia do not respond to any standard deworming  products. This is the reason why producers often continue to observe scouring after de-worming - i.e. coccidia were really the cause. 

6. Medications used to treat clinical coccidiosis differ from medications used for prevention         Producers need to identify if treatment and/or prevention is desired and use the appropriate medications.

7. Environmental buildup (concentration) of the organism occurs in the lambing barn and feedlot.  Lambing barn outbreaks often correspond to the second half of the lambing season when organism concentrations, animal crowding and wet conditions are conducive to oocyst transmission.

8. Fecal flotation may or may not be a helpful diagnostic tool.  Veterinarians utilize microscopic identification of oocysts in the manure of a scouring lamb to link scouring to coccidiosis. However, failure to demonstrate oocysts in a fecal sample from a 4-week-old lamb may not necessarily indicate that coccidia are absent.  Example:  Coccidiosis is common in 3 to 4-week-old lambs, yet these lambs seldom shed coccidia organisms in their manure when the outbreak begins.  Scouring usually starts about 17 days after infection, however, oocysts may not be evident in the fecal sample for another 5 days (about 22 days after initial infection). The coccidia organism is mature enough to cause scouring, but not mature enough to shed oocysts in the manure.  It is a little like the analogy of finding an egg in the hen house.  Finding the egg signals the presence of a hen.  However, lack of an egg doesn't indicate her absence.

9. Individual animal treatment for clinical coccidiosis is difficult, but often necessary if lambs are extremely ill or have not been weaned.  Logistical problems result because, large numbers of lambs are infected, oral medications are used and daily treatment for 3 to 7 days is required. Prevention is a much better alternative - especially where large numbers of lambs are involved.

10. Lamb feed consumption (especially un-weaned lambs) is unpredictable. Preventive/therapeutic medication of creep and grower rations often must exceed federally approved levels if therapeutic/preventive amounts of medication are to be consumed.  Early outbreaks of coccidosis in lambs are difficult to prevent via medicated creep feed alone. The problem is not the medication.  The lambs are not eating enough of the medicated feed (they are nursing at this time of early infection) to get an appropriate dose.

9.                                     11. Stress often induces outbreaks of coccidiosis. Coccidiosis often follows weaning or shipping stresses.

      12. Pneumonia outbreaks often parallel or follow clinical coccidiosis infections. Conditions conducive          to lambing barn pneumonia (poor ventilation, humidity, over crowding, wet bedding etc.) are also                       conducive to oocyst survival.

13. Don’t be miserly with straw for bedding. Daily bedding with straw creates a manure pack that reduces close contact between infective oocysts and lambs and decreases surface moisture required for oocyst survival. Coccidiosis is one disease where excessive cleaning of cement floored barns may actually be conducive to moisture accumulation and oocyst survival.

14. Treatment for clinical coccidiosis is often labor intensive, costly and dependent upon lamb age, facilities, feeding program, and available medications. Un-weaned lambs - that are not on consistent levels of feed or water - must be individually treated.  Older lambs can often treated as a group in either the feed or drinking water. Where possible, medicating the drinking water is usually a better option than medicating feed - as sick animals will generally drink even if "off feed”. Treatment involves medication with either an oral sulfonamide or oral amprolium. Some outbreaks of coccidiosis respond better to one or the other type of medication. Personal preference would be to start treatment with a sulfonamide - as these medications are also useful for treating concurrent pneumonia problems.