Comparison of Disease Susceptibility and Subclass-Specific Antibody Response in SC and FP Chickens Experimentally Inoculated with Eimeria tenella, E. acervulina, or E. maxima

Abstract

Susceptibility to disease and the subclass-specific antibody response to Eimeria tenella, E. acervulina, and E. maxima were compared in two inbred strains of chickens, FP (B15B21) and SC (B2B2). FP strain was more susceptible to coccidiosis than SC chickens based on oocyst production, lesion score, and clinical signs. FP chickens infected with E. tenella had more severe cecal lesions and a significantly lower hematocrit level than SC chickens. FP chickens infected with E. acervulina excreted five times as many oocysts at 6 days postinfection as SC and showed a 71% reduction in plasma carotenoid level compared with controls (56% reduction in SC chickens). Body-weight change did not correlate with other signs of disease. Both SC and FP chickens produced high levels of serum IgM and IgG and biliary IgA. Although SC chickens had a slightly higher antibody response than FP chickens at 7 days postinoculation, both strains maintained high levels of IgM, IgG, and IgA for a prolonged period post primary inoculation. Although SC and FP chickens show different disease susceptibility to coccidiosis, they demonstrate similar antibody response.

Fatty acids and coccidiosis: effects of dietary supplementation with different oils on coccidiosis in chickens

“…These results suggested that fish oil and corn oil decreased the mortality ratio of chickens infected with E. tenella through increasing E. tenella antigen-bindingspecific sIgA levels. A previous study has suggested that two different strains of chickens infected with E. tenella produced higher levels of serum-specific IgG (Lillehoj & Ruff, 1986). Diets without supplemental oils had higher levels of IgG (Table 5), and this result could have contributed to the lower mortality of chickens infected with E. tenella.…”

“…The supernatants were determined at 478 nm. A spun micro-haematocrit was prepared in four replicates for each sample for measuring the PCV (Lillehoj & Ruff, 1986;Bryner et al, 1997).…”

Coccidia: A review of recent advances on immunity and vaccine development

“…Isotypes of anti-coccidia antibodies in both the circulation and mucosal secretions have been studied (Rose et al, 1984a;Trees et al, 1985;Lillehoj, 1987b;Hughes et al, 1989). Serum IgM peaked 13 to 17 dpi of E. tenella (Trees et al, 1985) and at 10 dpi of E. nieschulzi infection (Rose et al, 1984a).…”

Recent Progress in Understanding Host Mucosal Response to Avian Coccidiosis and Development of Alternative Strategies to Mitigate the Use of Antibiotics in Poultry Production

“…However, antibody titers in serum and intestine do not correlate with the level of protection after oral infection with coccidia (Lillehoj and Ruff, 1987). Three isotypes of antibodies are recognized in birds, IgM, IgA and IgY, the latter being considered the ortholog of the mammalian IgG (Leslie and Clem, 1969), even though the cDNA encoding the IgY heavy chain shows similarity to mammalian IgE (Parvari et al, 1988).…”

“…The role of parasite-specific antibodies both in serum and mucosal secretions has been extensively studies in coccidiosis (Lillehoj and Ruff, 1987). In general, antibodies are hallmark of host immune response to Eimeria parasites, but are not involved in protection against coccidiosis .…”