Cell culture systems for the protozoan Eimeria are not yet available. The present study was conducted to develop an animal model system by inoculating animals with a live Eimeria vaccine. This study was conducted on 3-day-old chickens (n = 20) pretreated with cyclophosphamide. The chickens were divided into 2 groups: the control group (n = 10) and the inoculated group that received the live Eimeria vaccine (n = 10). During the study period, we compared the clinical signs, changes in body weight, and number of oocysts shed in the feces of the control and inoculated group. This study showed that oocyst shedding was significantly higher in the chickens inoculated with live Eimeria oocysts than in the control chickens. Moreover, body weight gain was lesser in the animals in the inoculated group than in the control animals. Fecal oocyst shedding was observed in the inoculated animals. On the basis of these findings, we suggest that live Eimeria vaccination with cyclophosphamide pretreatment may be used to obtain an effective animal model for studying protozoan infections. This animal study model may eliminate the need for a tedious continuous animal inoculation process every 6 months because the live coccidiosis vaccine contains live oocysts.

A thirty-five week old elk was referred for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) confirmation from Chungnam province in Korea. Necropsy revealed much bloody contents in the lumen of small and large intestines, and reddening of its mucosa. Microscopically, few coccidia showing various developmental stages were infiltrated in lamina propria of small intestine with granulomatous inflammation and congestion. They were identified as Eimeria spp. according to their location and morphological characteristics. Because fecal examination and oocyst culture were not available, the species of the Eimeria could not be confirmed. There were no detection of pathogenic bacteria such as clostridia and virus in intestinal contents. CWD was shown to be negative in immunohistochemistry test. In conclusion, it was the first Eimeria case detected in small intestine of Korean domestic elk as far as we know although Eimeria spp. were not the main cause of death.

Fecal samples from beef and dairy calves less than 12-month-old of Chonnam area were examined for coccidial oocysts. The percentages of cattle and coccidian species found were: Eimeria alabamensis, 9.4; E. auburnensis, 12.5; E. bovis, 29.9; E. brasiliensis, 1.5; E. bukidnonensis, 2.1; E. canadensis, 10.4; E. cylindrica, 7.5; E. ellipsoidalis, 11.5; E. pellita, 1.7; E. subspherica, 10.4; E. wyomingensis, 2.9; and E. zuernii, 22.5. Fifty five percent of the fecal samples from 521 calves were positive for oocysts, and clinical coccidiosis was not found in any of these calves. The number of species in positive samples ranged from 1 to 7