Prophylactic and Therapeutic Methods Against Histomoniasis in Poultry
Histomoniasis, commonly known as blackhead disease, is a parasitic disease in poultry caused by the protozoan Histomonas meleagridis. The availability of various compounds for chemotherapy in the 1970s resulted in the successful control of blackhead disease. Since the ban of antihistomonal drugs in the European Union, the disease has re-emerged, resulting in up to 100% mortality in turkey flocks. This has renewed the interest of scientists with numerous publications focusing on prophylactic strategies. This review summarizes the literature on the preventive and curative options for the control and treatment of histomoniasis. Two main approaches to the prophylaxis of the disease were found, which included chemotherapies and plant substrate products. Histostat-50 and paromomycin were the only available drugs that showed antihistomonal activity despite some concern about their threat to human health and antibiotic resistance. None of the plant substrate products provided potential protection to birds against blackhead disease. The use of attenuated histomonads could be an alternative for the prevention of the disease, but the production of this vaccine prototype is still challenging due to advanced technique requirements.