Abstract

Coccidiosis causes considerable economic loss in the poultry industry. The study was designed to investigate the induced damage in renal tissue of rabbits infected with Eimeria coecicola sporulated oocysts. Animals were divided into two groups. The first group acted as the non-infected control group while the second group was infected with 50,000 E. coecicola sporulated oocysts. Infection induced a weight loss and rabbits output were approximately 1.2 billion oocysts/g feces on day 7 postinfection. Histological examinations revealed that the renal tissues of the infected animals were damaged where, the urinary space appeared wider, and some kidney tubule cells were vacuolated and the nuclei appeared to be slightly swollen than normal. Both carbohydrates and protein content in the infected renal tissue were reduced. Also, the level of both of urea and glucose in blood plasma were elevated due to infection with E. coecicola sporulated oocysts and reached 25.7 ± 1.1 and 143.8 ± 7.1 mg/dl, respectively. The results obtained from this study suggest that E. coecicola infection induced renal tissue damage.

Key words: Coccidiosis, renal tissue, rabbit.