Preliminary Genetic Diversity Study on Different Isolates of Eimeria tenella from South India

Abstract

Coccidiosis is an intestinal disease of chickens caused by more than six species of the protozoan parasites of the Genus Eimeria and has a major economic impact on the poultry industry throughout the world. Various studies revealed that the diversity of the parasites results in the pathogenicity and in the host pathogen relationship. So, in the present study we analyzed the genetic diversity of Eimeria tenella using the small subunit of 18S rRNA from different poultry managements of South India. About 23 variations were observed among the four isolates of Eimeria tenella with the similarity ranged from 99.3%–95.6% and 28–39 variations observed when compared the four isolates with the reference sequences obtained from the public domain. More than 90% of the similarity was observed between the study and the reference sequences. A mean distance of 0.03 was observed between the E. tenella isolates.