Although it infects virtually all cattle and can strike anywhere, coccidiosis is usually a disease of concentration, where the environment infects and reinfects. If all those reproduced, one-month later they would cover a quarter section of land almost 250 feet deep. They're almost impossible to eliminate, and they infect just about every bovine. Ingesting only 50,000 of the estimated 50 million eggs a cow passes each summer in her manure can cause severe intestinal disease.
Heavy infection can kill up to one in four young calves.
A s a result, coccidiosis costs the U.S. cattle industry several hundred million dollars per year. H owever, the real losses come not from scouring calves, but from the 95 to 98 percent of infections you never see. T reatment of bovine coccidiosis is difficult and often disappointing, because once you see the clinical signs, the disease is so far along that the damage is done - severely affected calves may never regain productivity losses can be successfully prevented. Controlling the disease from the moment the calf arrives with an approach that combines management with medication promises the most success. Manure from a coccidiosis-affected Animal will contain relatively higher amounts of mucus, so it tends to stick around the tailhead.