[Gastrointestinal parasites of rabbits in coproscopic investigations]

Parasitological screening was carried out in a breeding herd of the New Zealand White rabbit breed in 2004.

Mothers, together with their offsprings, were kept in boxes on deep litter, whereas young rabbits were transferred to cages with slatted floor. All the animals were fed a complete balanced pelleted feed with two coccidiostats added alternately (Lerbec, Robenidine), and droplet watering system was applied. No anthelmintic was used in the rabbitry. A total of 170 individual samples of fresh feces from females of breeding stock, and 55 pooled samples in the case of young animals 2-4 months of age, collected on a month intervals, were analyzed according to a modified concentration McMaster's method, using saturated salty water with sugar as a flotation fluid.

The presence of several species of coccidia was evaluated, with Eimeria stiedae, E. perforans, E. media and E. magna being found in great numbers. The dynamics of infection showed that both adults and young animals were affected by coccidia mostly in May (mean intensity reached at that time 24000 opg in young rabbits), and then until August the infection lasted on a high level. As regards coccidiosis, parasitism could be considerably cut back in the herd by frequent changing of the straw litter, which should also always be dry. Only Passalurus ambiguus was found from nematodes, and only in the feces of adults, probably due to the modern forage and watering system applied, which broke the other worms' life cycles.