Vaccination with Eimeria tenella elongation factor-1α recombinant protein induces protective immunity against E. tenella and E. maxima infections.

Avian coccidiosis is caused by multiple species of the apicomplexan protozoan, Eimeria, and is one of the most economically devastating enteric diseases for the poultry industry worldwide. Host immunity to Eimeria infection, however, is relatively species-specific. The ability to immunize chickens against different species of Eimeria using a single vaccine will have a major beneficial impact on commercial poultry production.

vaccination using profilin and NetB proteins in Montanide IMS adjuvant increases protective immunity against experimentally-induced necrotic enteritis.

Objective: The effects of vaccinating 18-day-old chicken embryos with the combination of recombinant profilin plus () NetB proteins mixed in the Montanide IMS adjuvant on the chicken immune response to necrotic enteritis (NE) were investigated using an ()/ co-infection NE disease model that we previously developed.

Methods: Eighteen-day-old broiler embryos were injected with 100 μL of phosphate-buffered saline, profilin, profilin plus necrotic enteritis B-like (NetB), profilin plus NetB/Montanide adjuvant (IMS 106), and profilin plus Net-B/Montanide adjuvant (IMS 101). After post-hatch birds were challenged with our NE experimental disease model, body weights, intestinal lesions, serum antibody levels to NetB, and proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine mRNA levels in intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes were measured.