Coccidiosis is the major parasitic disease of poultry and is caused by the apicomplexan parasites Eimeria. Drugs and live vaccines are the two main control measures of the disease; however, due to increasing concerns with prophylactic drug use and the high cost of vaccines, alternative control methods are needed. Recent evidence that various dietary and live microbial supplements can influence host immunity against enteric diseases prompted me to investigate the role of prebiotic, probiotic on coccidiosis in broiler chickens. Neem fruit (azadirachta indica) and diclazuril is also used in the experimental trial due to their anticoccidial activity. For this purpose a total of 300 day old chicks free from coccidial infection were randomly divided into six groups (A, B, C, D, E and F) each comprising 50 birds. The dietary treatments for groups A-F were basal diet only, basal diet + Diclazuril 0.5%, basal diet + lactobacillus based probiotic, basal diet + Mannan-oligosacchrides (MOS), basal diet + neem fruit (Azadirachta indica) and basal diet only, respectively. The birds in groups A-E were challenged oesophageally with 10000 viable sporulated E. tenella oocysts, while the birds in group F were remained unchallenged and serve as negative control. The oocyst per gram (OPG), clinical signs/severity of diarrhea, lesion score, body weight gain, feed consumption, FCR, mortality rates, hemoglobin estimation, total leukocyte count and differential leukocyte count were the parameters considered. The efficacy of various treatments was estimated on the basis of reduction in OPG, clinical signs/severity of diarrhea and lesion score. The effect of coccidiosis on hemoglobin, total leukocyte count and differential leukocyte count were also recorded. The data thus obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Technique. The difference among the treatment means were tested by Duncans's Multiple Range (DMR) Test.

The results of the experiment revealed that oocyst per gram (OPG), clinical signs/severity of diarrhea, lesion score, mortality rates, feed consumption, hemoglobin estimation, total leukocyte count and differential leukocyte count of group D and C were significantly lower than group A, B and E (p
From the results of above experiment it is concluded that both prebiotic and probiotic not only facilitate as an anticoccidial but also helpful in body weight gain. These consequently result as an alternative drug free approach to antibiotics for the control of coccidiosis because of drug resistance as well as growth promoter and ultimately reduce the economic losses due to coccidiosis.