Evaluation of the protective efficacy of the anticoccidial vaccine Coccivac-B in broilers, when challenged with Egyptian field isolates of E. tenella.

The present study was performed to explore the efficacy of the commercial anticoccidial vaccine (Coccivac B®) in broiler chickens using five field strains of Eimeria tenella that were isolated from five provinces in Egypt. This study also analyzed the ITS-1-rDNA sequence of these five strains and its corresponding sequence in the vaccine. In a floor pen experiment, 216 one-day-old commercial broiler chicks were classified into vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups. Each main group was classified into six subgroups. The chicks were challenged on the 28th day of age with 10(4) sporulated oocysts of one of the five field strains of E. tenella. Our results indicated that Coccivac B® produced variable degrees of protection in the birds infected with the five different strains of E. tenella. Aligning the ITS-1 sequences from the five strains with the ITS-1 sequence of E. tenella from the vaccine revealed 96 % sequence similarity with the Kafer El-Sheikh strain, 94 % with the Gharbia strain, 90 % with the Alexandria strain, and 78 % with the Matrouh and Behera strains. While interesting, these similarity values were not useful for predicting the protection conferred by the vaccine against the five field isolates. However, based on the data reported here, we can conclude that Coccivac B® produced variable degrees of protection in the birds infected with the five different strains of E. tenella.