Selective Induced Altered Coccidians to Immunize and Prevent Enteritis

Abstract

Microbiomic flora in digestive tract is pivotal to the state of our health and disease. Antibiotics affect GI, control composition of microbiome, and shift equilibrium from health into disease status. Coccidiosis causes gastrointestinal inflammation. Antibiotic additives contaminate animal products and enter food chain, consumed by humans with possible allergic, antibiotic resistance and enigmatic side effects. Purposed study induced nonpathogenic, immunogenic organisms to protect against disease and abolish antibiotics' use in food animals and side effects in man. Diverse species of Coccidia were used as model. Immature organisms were treated with serial purification procedure prior to developmental stages to obtain altered strains. Chicks received oral gavage immunized with serial low doses of normal or altered organisms or sham treatment and were challenged with high infective normal organisms to compare pathogenicity and immunogenicity. Mature induced altered forms of E. tenella and E. necatrix lacked developmental stage of “sporocysts” and contained free sporozoites. In contrast, E. maxima progressed to normal forms or did not mature at all. Animals that received altered forms were considerably protected with higher weight gain and antibody titers against challenge infection compared to those that received normal organisms (p < 0.05). This is the first report to induce selected protective altered organisms for possible preventive measures to minimize antibiotic use in food animals.

Induced Aberrant Organisms with Novel Ability to Protect Intestinal Integrity from Inflammation in an Animal Model

“…Every field on each pathological slide was thoroughly examined for changes and possible damage. Cecal lesions were scored from 0 to 5 according to the severity of infection [ 3 , 18 ].…”

“…Ever since its discovery (Fantham and Porter 1900), Eimeria [ 17 ] have been described as organisms (oocysts) with four sporocysts, each containing two sporozoites. By utilizing purification procedures, aberrant forms of different Eimerias were induced which matured to contain 8-free-sporozoites with no protective sporocyst walls, as were confirmed by light microscopy [ 18 ]. The aberrant organisms proved to be less pathogenic than the normal form in inbred Leghorn-chicks, but similarly immunogenic.…”

Natural Compounds as an Alternative to Control Farm Diseases: Avian Coccidiosis

“…The global economic loss has been estimated up to 3 billion dollars worldwide including production losses, prevention, and treatment costs [4,13,16,17]. Losses are mainly due to morbidity as coccidiosis results in reduction in weight gain and egg production additionally to affect the quality of meat by diminishing feed conversion, malabsorption, and maldigestion and further leads to mortality [18]. The poultry industry operation requires that large groups of chickens are kept on the floor at high humidity in warm conditions, appropriate for the development and transmission of the avian coccidia; therefore, the development of novel and natural compounds that control this disease is imperative [19].…”

“…In poultry, the principal etiologic agents of coccidiosis are obligatory intracellular protozoan parasites of the genus Eimeria, subclass Coccidia that belong to family Eimeriidae and the phylum Apicomplexa [2,18,20]. This phylum groups many other protozoa of medical and/ or veterinary importance.…”

“…It has been reported around 5000 species of apicomplexan parasites, including some that affect humans as malarial parasites Plasmodium spp. ; the zoonotic organisms Cryptosporidium parvum and Toxoplasma gondii; Babesia and Theileria and the more recently described Neospora caninum, cattle parasites; and Eimeria spp., with host diversity as cattle and poultry pathogens [4,18,21]. The majority of apicomplexans are obligate intracellular parasites that infect new host cells by invasive extracellular stages, that involve a specialized array of cytoskeletal elements and secretory organelles known as the apical complex (micronemes, rhoptries, dense granules, and conoid and polar rings), and that would provide the structural stability necessary during the host invasion process [4,18,21,22].…”