Investigation of thymol efficacy to control pigeon coccidiosis was performed using in-vitro and in-vivo studies. The in-vitro experiment was conducted by treatment of unsporulated oocysts of Eimeria species of pigeon by five concentrations (0.625-10%) from either thymol, eucalyptus essential oil or amprolium anticoccidial drug and incubation for 72 h. The in-vitro study revealed that thymol concentrations ≥1.25 % caused significant deformity on sporulated and unsporulated oocysts compared to the other two products. Eucalyptus oil was active at both 5 and 10 % concentrations on unsporulated oocysts but showed non-significant changes on sporulated ones at all tested concentration. Meanwhile, in-vivo testing of thymol was conducted using 45 squabs which were equally divided into three groups; untreated uninfected (UU) negative control, untreated infected (UI) positive control and thymol treated (TT). TT group received 40 mg/kg BWt thymol in feed for 15 days. At day five post thymol supplementation, the UI and TT groups were orally infected by 25 × 103sporulated oocysts of pigeon Eimeria labbeana. The in-vivo study showed that thymol minimized the adverse effect of Eimeria infection in pigeon as observed by less severity of clinical signs, low oocysts count and improvement of body weight when compared with untreated infected birds. In addition, the biochemical parameters including liver and kidney functions tests proved thymol safety in pigeon. Moreover, thymol showed excellent antioxidant activity that was estimated by significantly lower value of malondialdehyde in TT than UI groups. The histopathological findings of TT group showed intact intestinal villi with mild sloughed epithelium, degenerated coccidian developmental stages and massive infiltrations of mononuclear cells in lamina propria. In conclusion, thymol can be safely used to control pigeon coccidiosis as a natural effective compound.

中文翻译：

---

百里香酚对鸽子球虫病的功效。

使用体外和体内研究进行了百里酚控制鸽子球虫病的功效研究。体外实验是通过从百里香酚，桉树精油或氨苄青霉素抗球虫药中以五种浓度（0.625-10％）处理鸽子的艾美球虫属物种的未形成卵囊的卵，并孵育72小时。体外研究表明，与其他两种产品相比，百里酚浓度≥1.25％会使孢子化和未孢子化的卵囊产生明显的畸形。桉树油对未孢子卵囊的浓度分别为5％和10％，但在所有测试浓度下对孢子卵囊均无明显变化。同时，对百里香酚进行了体内测试，使用了45个小扁豆，将它们平均分为三组。未经治疗的未感染（UU）阴性对照，未经治疗的感染（UI）阳性对照和百里酚治疗（TT）。TT组在饲料中接受40 mg / kg BWt百里酚，持续15天。百里酚补充后第5天，UI和TT组被25×103头鸽Eimeria labbeana的孢子卵囊口服感染。体内研究表明，与未经处理的感染禽类相比，由于临床症状严重程度降低，卵囊计数低和体重增加，百里香酚将鸽子对艾美球虫感染的不利影响降至最低。此外，包括肝和肾功能测试在内的生化参数证明了百里香酚对鸽子的安全性。此外，百里香酚显示出优异的抗氧化活性，据TT中的丙二醛值明显低于UI组。TT组的组织病理学结果显示完整的肠绒毛，上皮轻度脱落，球虫的发育阶段退化，固有层中大量单核细胞浸润。总之，百里酚可以作为天然有效的化合物安全地用于控制球虫病。