Project description:Avian coccidiosis is a major disease of poultry caused by the intestinal protozoa Eimeria. Aviagen line A and line B birds show differential susceptibility to Eimeria infection, with line B birds exhibiting higher lesion scores and mortality. The objective of this study was to examine differential intestinal gene expression between line A and B chicks in response to a challenge with Eimeria maxima. Following challenge with 1 x 10^4 oocysts/chick, greater than 40% of line A chicks had lesion scores of 0 to 1 (on 0 to 4 scale), similar to controls. In contrast, all line B challenged chicks at this same dose had lesion scores of 2 to 4.
