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| Keywords: Eimeria life cycle usda.jpg Eimeria Life Cycle<br><br> Eimeria have a complex life cycle that begins after oocysts that are in the litter are ingested by chickens The grinding action of the gizzard coupled to the enzymes in the gut of chickens leads to release of the sporozoite stage The sporozoites search out particular regions of the gut and invade the epithelial cells lining the intestine This invasion may occur within 1 to 6 hours after the oocysts are ingested After invasion the sporozoites undergo replication which leads to a rapid increase in another stage of the parasite called merozoites This developmental stage breaks out of the gut cells and invades more cells of the gut multiplying once again The effects of coccidiosis are generally associated with the lysing of host epithelial cells by merozoites As many as four generations of merozoites may develop in the gut during an infection The number of generations is dependent on the particular species of Eimeria Some as yet unidentified signal tells the merozoites to develop into the sexual stages called micro- male and macro- female gametocytes These develop into micro- and macrogametes which fuse to form a zygote The zygote develops into an oocyst stage that are eventually released in the feces These oocysts are covered by a hard shell but first must undergo further development sporulation in litter to become infectious for chickens The whole process between oocyst ingestion and release may take between 4-6 days to complete USDA ARS http //www ars usda gov/Main/docs htm docid 11018 2008-01-27 USDA PD-USGov Eimeria Sporulation | ||||
