Molecular identification of Eimeria species of broiler chickens in Turkey

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine whether seven Eimeria species involved in chicken coccidiosis are present in Turkey and to assess their prevelance in commercial flocks. Litter and faecal samples were collected from 1110 broiler flocks housed in 817 farms (about 12% of all broiler farms in Turkey) between September 2006 and September 2007. Coccidian oocysts were found in 624 (56.2 %) of the samples examined. Species-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested PCR tests targeting the internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) sequences of the genomic rDNA were performed for all seven Eimeria species. The results of species-specific PCR assays confirmed the presence of E. maxima, E. tenella, K acervulina and E. praecox, and nested PCR results showed the presence of E mitis and E. brunetti. Although morphologic and morphometric observations revealed the presence of oocysts resembling E. necatrix; it was not confirmed by species specific or nested PCR. Nucleotide sequences of Turkish Eimeria isolates obtained by sequencing of the PCR products from 6 Eimeria species have been entered into the GenBank sequence database under accession numbers HQ680469 through HQ680474.