Scanning electron microscopy of damage to the cecal mucosa of turkeys infected with Eimeria adenoides.
White Wrolstad turkeys were each inoculated with 100,000 Eimeria adenoides oocysts and killed on days 4-14 postinoculation. Tissue samples, obtained from 4 areas of the ceca comparable to areas examined in chickens infected with E. tenella in previous studies, were processed by a modification of the osmium-thiocarbo-hydrazide-osmium technique and examined with a scanning electron microscope. The pathologic situation found in turkeys was slightly different from that in the ceca of chickens infected with E. tenella. The mucosal lesions are most severe at the proximal end of an infected cecum. Surface disruption was far less severe than with cecal coccidiosis in chickens of the same age exposed to an equal number of infective oocysts. Rupture of the epithelial cell often caused the mucosal surface to present a honeycomb appearance. Some specific stages of the life cycle were identified, including schizonts and oocysts.
D000818:Animals; D002432:Cecum / Q000469:parasitology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D004539:Eimeria / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D014422:Turkeys