Three operational taxonomic units of Eimeria are common in Nigerian chickens and may undermine effective molecular diagnosis of coccidiosis

Table 1 Identification of Eimeria species and OTU genotypes recovered from commercial poultry farms in Zaria

Eimeria occurrence was determined by oocyst morphology before and after in vivo propagation, and species/genotype-specific PCR after propagation. Highlighted boxes indicate samples found to contain large oocysts by microscopy after passage and OTUx and y genotypes, but not E. brunetti or E. maxima by PCR. Ea = E. acervulina, Eb = E. brunetti, Ema = E. maxima, Emi = E. mitis, Ene = E. necatrix, Ep = E. praecox, Et – E. tenella. Morphological identification: AM = small oocysts (Ea, Em), NTP = medium oocysts (En, Et, Ep), BM = large oocysts (Eb, Ema). L = layer breed chicken (ISA Brown), B = broiler breed chicken (Cobb). + = parasite detected, - = parasite not detected

ISSN: 1746-6148