Risk of Coccidiosis in Nigerian Dwarfts

If you read anything written in the 90s or talk to someone who's been raising goats for a long time and has not kept up with current research, they will tell you that this is possible. However, coccidia in chickens and goats are two different species, so they cannot give them to each other. It's the same thing with "roundworms." You may hear people say that goats, dogs, chickens, etc, all get roundworms. Well, there are a few THOUSAND species of roundworms, and they're all species specific. They look almost identical under a microscope when a vet does a fecal, which is why this was a common misconception 20 years ago. However, each species of mammal or bird has their own species of parasites. Goats have a roundworm called haemonchus contortus, whereas other animals have a different one. The only exception is sheep, which are similar enough to goats that they do share parasites. Haemonchus contortus is commonly called barber pole worm, and just to confuse people, they also have a barber pole worm in cattle, but it's a different haemonchus. That's the closest, but still a different parasite. Other species of roundworms are not even in the same family.

Replies

Kristi Stone June 1, 2015 at 12:21pm

Thank you for clarifying the information on coccidia, Deborah, that is really great to know.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle June 1, 2015 at 11:40am

If you read anything written in the 90s or talk to someone who's been raising goats for a long time and has not kept up with current research, they will tell you that this is possible. However, coccidia in chickens and goats are two different species, so they cannot give them to each other. It's the same thing with "roundworms." You may hear people say that goats, dogs, chickens, etc, all get roundworms. Well, there are a few THOUSAND species of roundworms, and they're all species specific. They look almost identical under a microscope when a vet does a fecal, which is why this was a common misconception 20 years ago. However, each species of mammal or bird has their own species of parasites. Goats have a roundworm called haemonchus contortus, whereas other animals have a different one. The only exception is sheep, which are similar enough to goats that they do share parasites. Haemonchus contortus is commonly called barber pole worm, and just to confuse people, they also have a barber pole worm in cattle, but it's a different haemonchus. That's the closest, but still a different parasite. Other species of roundworms are not even in the same family.
Kristi Stone May 31, 2015 at 1:56pm

I would think 100% if anyone gets infected, but that's just me speculating again. ;-P

There are other issues with housing your animals together, not just coccidiosis. Since they don't have anything to do with coccidia, I'll mention them in the other thread. :)

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