Coccidiosis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An intestinal disease caused by protozoan parasites affecting animals and birds, characterized by symptoms like diarrhea and weight loss
2. A parasitic infection primarily impacting the digestive tract of livestock and poultry, leading to diarrhea, dehydration, and sometimes death
3. An illness resulting from coccidia protozoa invading the intestines of various species, marked by gastrointestinal distress and failure to thrive

Etymology: Coccidiosis is built from two Greek elements. The first, "kokkos", meant a berry, grain, or seed. Scientists naming a group of single-celled parasites gave the genus the New Latin name "Coccidium", because their cyst stages looked like tiny seeds. The second element, "-osis", is a Greek-derived suffix that medicine uses for a diseased or abnormal condition. Together, the term names the disease that these parasites cause in the intestines of animals. The same Greek root is behind several other words. Bacteria shaped like spheres are called "cocci", and the red dye "cochineal", made from scale insects, traces back through Latin "coccum", a scarlet berry or kermes oak gall, to "kokkos". The parasite's name is thus one of several English words that all point back to a single small, round thing.

Synonyms: coccidia infection, intestinal protozoan infection