Immunological aspects of infections withEimeria maxima: A short review

Abstract

Eimeria maxima is one of the seven species of protozoan parasites that cause intestinal coccidiosis in chickens. Discovered and ® rst described exactly 70 years ago, the parasite has some unique features that both distinguish it from the other members of the genus and make it of relevance to the world's poultry industry. Of special interest is the balanced immunological relationship that E. maxima achieves with its host. The marked immunogenicity of the parasite results in swift and complete protection to homologous challenge, but is counterbalanced by the ubiquity of antigenically different strains that provide a signi® cantly heterologous challenge and are only poorly controlledÐ essentially two sides of the same coin.In this paper, we will describe some of the features of the biology of E. maxima, with an emphasis on the immunogenicity and antigenic diversity of the parasite, and discuss some of the ways in which these features impinge on attempts to control infection. The review is, of necessity, brief and selective by choice; for more information, the reader is referred to the de® nitive paper on E. maxima by Tyzzer (1929) and to reviews on other aspects of Eimeria spp., including E. maxima, by Rose (1997) and Chapman (1997).

Control of eight predominant Eimeria spp. involved in economic coccidiosis of broiler chicken by a chemically characterized essential oil

“…These are Eimeria acervulina (Assis et al . ), Eimeria brunetti (Hein ), Eimeria maxima (Schnitzler and Shirley ), Eimeria mivati ( Vrba et al . ), Eimeria necatrix (Conway and Mckenzie ), Eimeria hagani (Joyner and Long ), Eimeria praecox (Reperant et al .…”

Prevalence of subclinical coccidiosis in broiler farms in Turkey

“…It has been indicated in published studies that the infection dose and disease intensity, when higher than a given threshold, could inversely influence oocyst generation in the host. Such effect could be related with crowding effect and the development of immunity (Schnitzler and Shirley 1999;Williams 2001;Kar et al 2010).…”

Analysis of Chicken Mucosal Immune Response toEimeria tenellaandEimeria maximaInfection by Quantitative Reverse Transcription-PCR

“…In this study, we analyzed the local immune response of leghorn chickens to two strains of Eimeria commonly found in poultry farming, Eimeria tenella and E. maxima (33), by qualitative RT-PCR followed by a precise quantitative RT-PCR method.…”