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About the Authors:
Seung I. Jang
Contributed equally to this work with: Seung I. Jang, Duk Kyung Kim
Current address: Institute of Health and Environment, Daejeon Metropolitan City, Daejeon, Korea
Affiliation: Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America
Duk Kyung Kim
Contributed equally to this work with: Seung I. Jang, Duk Kyung Kim
Affiliation: Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America
Hyun S. Lillehoj
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America
Sung Hyen Lee
Affiliation: Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America
Kyung Woo Lee
Affiliation: Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America
François Bertrand
Affiliation: SEPPIC, 22 Terrasse Bellini, 92800 Puteaux, France
Laurent Dupuis
Affiliation: SEPPIC, 22 Terrasse Bellini, 92800 Puteaux, France
Sébastien Deville
Affiliation: SEPPIC, 22 Terrasse Bellini, 92800 Puteaux, France
Juliette Ben Arous
Affiliation: SEPPIC, 22 Terrasse Bellini, 92800 Puteaux, France
Erik P. Lillehoj
Affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Introduction
Avian coccidiosis is one of the most costly infectious diseases affecting the commercial poultry industry [1]. Coccidia that infect chickens include Eimeria acervulina, E. tenella, E. maxima, E. brunetti, E. necatrix, E. praecox, and E. mitis. These apicomplexan protists invade cells of the intestinal epithelium, evoking necrotic tissue destruction and resulting in reduced body weight gain in broilers, decreased egg production in layers, and fecal shedding of viable parasites that re-infect susceptible animals upon ingestion. Over the preceding 40 years, avian coccidiosis has been mainly controlled by prophylactic chemotherapeutic drugs. More recently, the use of coccidia vaccines has reduced the need for in-feed medication [2]. Because host immunity to Eimeria infection is species-specific, currently available live, attenuated vaccines consist of mixtures of four or more Eimeria species. The basis of using live coccidia vaccines involves a continuous excretion/re-ingestion cycle of an initial low dose of parasites, which...