| 1. NCBI Taxonomy ID: |
| 5802 |
| 2. Disease: |
| Hemorrhagic cecal coccidiosis |
| 3. Introduction |
| Eimeria tenella is a species of Eimeria that causes hemorrhagic cecal coccidiosis in young poultry. Monoxeous life cycle with definitive (only) host as chickens. Extremely host-specific. Acquired via fecal contamination of food and water (oral fecal route). Goes thru endogenous merogony in crypts of lieberkuhr (intestinal ceca of chicken) and gametogony in epithelial cells of small intestines. Fusion of microgamete and macrogamete forms unsporulated zygote which is released with feces of chicken. Zygote sporulates after 1-5 days and becomes infective. Diagnosis is based on finding oocysts in feces. No effective treatment but can reduce rate of infection via prophylates, anti-coccidial drugs and vaccination of baby chicks (Wiki: Eimeria tenella). |
| 4. Host Ranges and Animal Models |
| Chickens the only host of Eimeria tenella (Wiki: Eimeria tenella). |
| 5. Host Protective Immunity |
| Protective immunity against Eimeria infections strongly depends on the cellular immune responses involving T cells, natural killer cells (NK) and macrophages (Wang et al., 2009). |
