Lethal Effects of Cecal Contents from Chickens Infected with Cecal Coccidiosis and the Inhibition of These Effects with Immune Sera

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Abstract
The blood that collects in the ceca of chickens as a result of the desquamation of the cecal epithelium by the protozoan parasite Eimeria tenella caused intravascular coagulation when injd. intraven. into other chickens. Cecal material from normal chickens or from infected ones for 4 days following infection was not toxic. Hemorrhaged blood resulting from coccidiosis usually develops into a fibrous core on the 5th day following infection. This core, when first formed, is red due to the hemorrhaged blood, it begins to fade at about the 10th day and is often completely white at 13 days. The homogenized contents (red core and liquid) of the cecum when injd. intraven. into chickens was uniformly fatal and, at times, doses as small as 0.01 ml. killed chickens weighing 800 g. By the 13th day the cores were white and extracts of such cecal contents were not toxic. Antisera produced in rabbits against extracts of cecal mucosa, brain and lung tissues of chickens neutralized the toxicity of the cecal contents when incubated with such contents.

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