Many years ago, part of my master’s degree thesis involved evaluating whether or not anticoccidial sensitivity tests (ASTs) actually represent real-life commercial chicken production.

To conduct ASTs, different groups of Eimeria-free birds are infected with field isolates of coccidia. The dosage of coccidia is high enough to cause coccidiosis in untreated controls. The other birds are divided into groups that each receive a different anticoccidial. Theoretically, ASTs will reveal the anticoccidial that will best control the Eimeria found in field samples.

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