The foregoing study on pages 153-156 was accepted on 5th May 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njpar.v37i2.6  Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria, 2016. Nigerian Journal of Parasitology ISSN 1117 4145 Volume 37[2] September 2016 Prevalence of coccidiosis in chickens at three poultry farms at Minna, Niger State, Nigeria Eke, S. S., 1 * Ibeh, E. O., 1 Omalu, I. C. J., 1 Otuu, C. A., 1 Hassan, S. C. 2 and Ubanwa, E. D. 1 1 Department of Animal Biology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria 2 Zoology Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi email: ekesamuel2012@gmail.com, ekesamuel4real@yahoo.co.uk Abstract Coccidiosis is an intestinal disease of birds caused by a microscopic protozoan which lives and multiplies in the intestinal tract and causes damage to tissues, and eventually death. This study was carried out in three poultry farms in Minna, Niger State and among birds of ages 2 to 4 weeks and 6 weeks and above. Faecal samples were examined using the sedimentation technique. Out of 200 samples analyzed, 56 (28%) were positive for Eimeria species infection. In farm A, out of the 67 samples analyzed, 20 (29.85%) were infected. While an infection rate of 18 (27.30%) out of 65 and 18 (26.90%) out of 68 samples were infected for Farm B and C respectively. Based on age differences, Eimeria species were detected in 35 (34.65%) out of 101 young birds and 21 (21.21%) for adult birds out of the 99 samples analyzed. In Farm A 10 (30.30%) out of 33 samples were detected in young birds and 10 (29.41%) out of 34 samples in adult birds. In Farms B and C, 12 (36.36%) out of 33 and 6 (18.75%) out of 32; 13 (37.14%) out of 35 and 5 (15.15%) out of 33 samples were detected for Eimeria species for young and old birds respectively. There was a slightly higher prevalence rate among the farms and the various ages of the birds which was not significantly different at ( p>0.05). The result of this study showed that the prevalence of infection was low in the 3 farms examined, and increased among the younger birds within the ages of 2 to 4 weeks old. The prescence of Eimeria species in farms could cause great economic losses in birds production. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to ensure adequate bio-security by avoiding wet litter which could encourage oocyst sporulation, and reduce the stocking density of birds. Keywords: coccidiosis, microscopic protozoan, Minna, eimeria, oocyst sporulation. Introduction Poultry refers to domestic birds such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, guinea fowl, peasants, pigeons and more recently ostriches kept for meat or egg production [1,2,3]. Those that are of economic importance given the trade in poultry, however are chicken, guinea fowls and turkeys among which the chickens predominate [4,3,5,6]. The poultry industry occupies an important position in the provision of animal protein (meat and egg) to man as well as manure for crops and generally plays a vital role in the national economy as a revenue-provider and employment [7,8]. In 1998, the poultry meat represented 28 % of the world total meat consumption compared to 26.5% for beef [8, 9]. It is also estimated that poultry provides 12 kg of protein needs per inhabitants per year whereas cattle provides 5.3 kg [8, 10, 11]. Historically, poultry diseases remain one of the major threats to boosting poultry production in Nigeria [12, 13, 14]. These diseases are of particular importance because of their high incidence in poultry occasioned by the tropical environmental conditions under which the farmer operates [15, 16]. With the continued increase in poultry production in Nigeria [17] evidenced by the proliferation of farms, it is pertinent to continually evaluate the prevalence and management issues associated with common poultry diseases. Coccidiosis, as one of the most significant diseases of poultry, costs the world’s commercial chicken producers at least US$ 1.5 billion every year [18, 19, 20]. It is a major parasitic disease of poultry with a substantial economic impact to the poultry industries in Nigeria [13, 21, 22]. Coccidiosisis is a disease of fowl caused by a microscopic