Coccidiosis, a common parasitosis disease caused by protozoa of the genus Eimeria, leads to malnutrition and performance depression in poultry. There is an increasing interest in using essential oils against coccidiosis infection. The supplementation of essential oils led to a significant reduction of coccidian oocyst excretion and an alleviation of intestinal lesions in chicks (Alp et al., 2012, Bozkurt et al., 2014, Barbour et al., 2015). However, the underlying mechanisms still need to be elucidated.