Prophylactic Efficacies of the Locally Prepared Eimeria tenella Vaccine in Broiler Chicken

I. Rashid, H. Akbar, W. Shehzad, K. Ashraf, N. Ahmad, M. Lateef, A. Maqbool, M. Oneeb, and K. Saeed

Abstract

Eimeria tenella is one of the important species as it causes caecal coccidiosis in chickens. Coccidiosis is believed to be controlled effectively using vaccines. The present study investigated the prophylactic efficacy of two locally prepared vaccines against caecal coccidiosis in broiler chicken. Broiler chicks (n = 80) were divided in four different groups A, B, C and D (n = 20 birds/group), reared as healthy control, infected control, vaccinated only once with formalin inactivated Eimeria tenella (FEV-48) vaccine on day 10 of age with 1000 oocysts orally and vaccinated with irradiated Eimeria tenella (IEV) on day 3 and 10 of age with 1000 oocysts orally, respectively. Birds were infected orally except the negative control group with 20,000 sporulated oocysts of E. tenella on the day 16 and 26. The birds were weighed weekly. Feces were collected on day 19, 23, 26, 29, 33 and 36 to determine oocysts per gram of feces (OPG). Result showed that the broilers of groups C and D weighed more compared to group B. The OPG count reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in the groups C and D compared to the group B. These promising results of using locally prepared vaccines need evaluation by humoral and cellular responses.

Key Words: Coccidiosis, Eimeria tenella, Vaccine, Weight gain