Survey and prevalence of Eimeria spp. in meat rabbits in selected districts of the Greater Accra region of Ghana

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map showing the municipalities where samples were taken from in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.

Table 1. Number of farms visited in each municipality and samples collected.

Municipality	Number of farms visited	Number of faecal samples collected
Ga East	14	115
Ga Central	15	96
Ga South	11	85
Total	40	296

Figure 2. Prevalence of Eimeria spp. on rabbit farms in the Ga Central, Ga East and Ga South municipalities of the Greater Accra region of Ghana.

Table 2. Modelling Eimeria spp. infestation among rabbits.

Variables	Odds ratio [95% CI]	p-value
District
Ga South	1
Ga East	3.71 [1.168–11.774]	0.027
Ga Central	1.63 [0.085–4.856]	0.026
Total rabbits on the farm
Less than 50	1
More than 50	1.939 [1.090–3.449]	0.029
Stocking rate (kits/cage)
1–5	1
6–10	0.742 [0.340–1.618]	0.024
More than 10	2.02 [0.251–4.131]	0.049

Table 3. Mean OPG count for Eimeria spp.

	Geometric Mean ± SE	F-Ratio	p-value
	6462.99 ± 72731.75
Intensity of coccidia infestation (OPG) count
Less than 1000	48 (24%)
1000–5000	60 (30%)
5000–10000	18 (9%)
>10000	74 (37%)
Total rabbits on the farm
Less than 50	3379.36 ± 6880.58	4.285	0.040
More than 50	8214.61 ± 98630.86
Stocking rate (kits/cage)
1–5	6439.84 ± 80816.37	0.057	0.945
6–10	6985.75 ± 185118.18
More than 10	5655.04 ± 269464.21
District
Ga Central	7409.02 ± 36271.76	8.892	0.002
Ga East	6031.54 ± 94106.02
Ga South	9330.37 ± 74515.68

Figure 3. Shape and size characteristics of Eimeria oocysts used in differentiation. a. E. stiedae, b. E. intestinalis, c. E. magna, d. E. coecicola, e. E. piriformis, f. E. irresidua, g. E. media, and h. E. perforans. The scare bar of 50 µm applies to all images.

Table 4. Morphological and size (means) characteristics of species of Eimeria identified in the three municipalities of the Greater Accra region.

Species	Length (Microns)	Width (Microns)	Morphological characteristics,
E. stiedae	33.47 ± 0.64	20.5 ± 0.30	Ellipsoid Micropyle seen No residual body seen
E. irresidua	32.41 ± 0.21	19 ± 0.40	Ovoid Micropyle seen at broad end No residual body seen
E. magna	33.78 ± 0.62	20.52 ± 0.77	Ovoid Broad micropyle Large residual body.
E. media	29 ± 0.70	17 ± 0.63	Ellipsoid Micropyle present Large residual body seen
E. perforans	20.07 ± 0.64	14.21 ± 0.40	Ellipsoid Micropyle not present Residual body not distinct
E. piriformis	30.38 ± 0.37	16.20 ± 0.24	Pyriform No residual body
E. intestinalis	26.50 ± 0.39	17.60 ± 0.24	Pyriform Large residual body seen No micropyle
E. coecicola	26.22 ± 1.10	14.90 ± 0.52	Ellipsoid Residual body seen Micropyle present

Figure 4. Species of Eimeria identified across Ga Central, Ga East and Ga South of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The percentage of each species represents its combined prevalence across all the three municipalities.

Figure 5. Percentage of mixed infestations with different Eimeria spp. on rabbit farms in the Ga Central, Ga East and Ga South municipalities of the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Each percentage represents all three municipalities combined for the indicated number of mixed infections.

Figure 6. Distribution (%) of individual Eimeria spp. in the Ga Central, Ga East and Ga South municipalities of the Greater Accra region of Ghana.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author, [DDON], upon reasonable request.