532 Emir. J. Food Agric ● Vol 33 ● Issue 7 ● 2021 Biosecurity assessment in relation to the occurrence of some coccidian parasites in poultry farms, with in vitro evaluation of Psidium gujava as coccidia sporulation inhibitor Fatma Ali Abouelenien 1 *, Ismail Saad Elshahawy 2 , Mohamed Elfatih Hamad 3 , Nagham Rafk Elsaidy 1 1 Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Vet. Med., Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt, 2 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Egypt, 3 Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University, UAE *Corresponding author: Fatma Ali Abouelenien, Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Vet. Med., Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt. Tel.: +20109462224. E-mail: fabou2ga@yahoo. com Received: 24 February 2021; Accepted: 19 June 2021 INTRODUCTION Globally, poultry farming is one of the most intensive and mechanized livestock operations in agriculture. This industry represents an important point in the provision of meat and egg to man and generally plays a dynamic role in the national economy as an income provider (Nnadi and George, 2010). In Egypt, the poultry industry employs about 2.5 million workers. Furthermore, this sector produces nearly 1.25 billion day-old chicks, 1.1 billion broilers, and 8billion table eggs/year (Byrne, 2019). Poultry production systems in Egypt are quite diverse, ranging from rural very small-scale, extensive poultry production to highly intensive caged systems with over 70,000 birds per house in industrial commercial systems. The risk for parasitic disease outbreaks among commercial poultry farms can result in signifcant economic losses for the farmer and the integration. When major disease outbreaks occur in a region, this may also result in great loss of employment. Of parasitic diseases, Coccidiosis is one of the most dangerous poultry diseases commonly cause economic losses worldwide (Abdisa et al., 2019). Coccidiosis, is caused by a single-celled protozoan parasite of the genus Eimeria and it remains a major constraint to The present study was performed to assess the correlation between biosecurity compliance measures and the prevalence of Eimeria and Cryptosporidium species in commercial based (CBF) and house hold (HHF) poultry farms, in Delta region Egypt. Additionally, this study aims to evaluate the effect of Psidium gujava on sporulation of Eimeria oocysts in bird environment (the chicken litter or manure). This study was conducted in 74 poultry farms, from which, 74 litter samples were collected for detection of both species. Additionally, 74 water samples were collected and examined for the presence of Cryptosporium spp. Concurrently a series of experiments were done separately to evaluate the effcacy of Psidium gujava. The results showed that the overall prevalence of Eimeria spp. was 48.6% with a higher prevalence in CBF (53.3%), while that of Cryptosporium spp. was 54% with the highest prevalence in HHF (62.5%). Application of farms disinfection was insignifcantly affected the prevalence of both protozoan parasites. Disposal of farm wastes as land fertilizers signifcantly decreased the prevalence of both protozoan parasites, in contrast disposing of wastes to fsh farms was associated with the highest prevalence of Eimeria spp. The highest prevalence of Cryptosporium spp. was recorded in farms that dispose dead birds to domestic rubbish. Rodent control and All in all-out system application were signifcantly decreased the Cryptosporium spp. prevalence (P=0.012, and 0.025 respectively). Finally, the highest sporulation inhibition percentage (SP% of 86.4) was obtained by using crude watery extract (10%) at a concentration of 2.5ml/ml after 24hr contact time. Keywords: Biosecurity practices; Cryptosporidium spp.; Eimeria spp.; Prevalence; Psidium gujava ABSTRACT Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture. 2021. 33(7): 532-543 doi: 10.9755/ejfa.2021.v33.i7.2720 http://www.ejfa.me/ RESEARCH ARTICLE