Abstract
Coccidiosis is a common infectious disease in poultry causing major economic losses. Here, we investigated the effect of Khodary date fruit aqueous extract (4 ml/kg) on the outcome of coccidiosis caused by Eimeria papillata in Swiss Albino mice. Date fruit extract was able to decrease the intracellular development by lowering the faecal output of E. papillata oocysts from 8.7 ± 0.5 × 10(3) to 6.6 ± 0.4 × 10(3) oocysts per gram faeces. Also, date extract caused a great diminish in body weight of infected mice from 19.3 to 3.2 %. The number of parasitic stages in the intestinal villi of the infected mice was reduced to about 52 % after treatment with date extract. The infection was associated with marked histopathological lesions of the murine jejunum in the form of inflammation, vacuolation of the epithelium, and destruction of some villi. Also, the number of goblet cells within the infected villi was significantly lowered (P ≤ 0.05). These changes lead to an oxidative damage of the infected tissue. Moreover, infection induced a disturbance in both protein and carbohydrate content in the infected mice. Treatment of mice with date extract could improve the above-studied parameters. On the basis of the above results it can be hypothesized that date fruit can protect against coccidiosis-induced infection, this hypothesis can be revealed by the anti-inflammatory activity of date protecting host tissue from injuries induced by the parasite, and hence it is recommended to be used as an excellent food additive.