Coccidiosis is a common and welfare-significant protozoan disease of young lambs causing bloody diarrhoea and significant mortality without appropriate management.
Lambs with coccidiosis experience severe gastrointestinal pain from intestinal villous destruction. The painful straining characteristic of coccidiosis causes obvious distress. Severe cases cause permanent gut damage reducing lifetime welfare from malabsorption. Mortality in untreated severe cases is significant. Welfare-focused coccidiosis management combines anticoccidial medication at appropriate timing (before clinical signs rather than after), hygiene management reducing oocyst build-up in housing, and stocking density management. Early treatment recognition and prompt medication is welfare-critical when clinical signs appear.