IMMUNOHISTOLOGICAL DEMONSTRATION OF ANTIGENICITY OF THE VARIOUS ENDOGENOUS STAGES OF EIMERIA-APSHERONICA IN GOATS

Ten naive goat kids obtained soon after birth were reared coccidia-fre e in cages indoors. At one month of age they were each infected with 2 5 000 oocysts of E. apsheronica. Infection was monitored by examining the faeces for oocysts for two and a half weeks after patency. They we re then euthanized and sections of their small intestines showing gros s coccidial lesions were fixed for histology. Intestinal sections were incubated in pre-infection and post-infection sera to detect any anti gen-antibody reactions using diaminobenzidine (DAB) as the stain. The sections treated with pre-infection sera stained very poorly in compar ison to those treated with post-infection sera. The conclusion is draw n that serum antibodies which developed after infection reacted with t he endogenous stages of the parasite and were histologically demonstra ble.