Observations on the duration of the acquired immunity of chickens to Eimeria maxima Tyzzer, 1929

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Abstract
Young chickens given an infection of 5000 oocysts of E. maxima were highly resistant when they were given a 2nd dose 3 weeks later. Immunity in these fowls was not apparent when they were again infected 10 weeks after the 2nd infection. The same fowls given a final dose 26 weeks after the 3rd infection became heavily infected. These observations suggest that immunity developed to this infection is short-lived, and this finding is discussed in relation to the duration of acquired immunity to E. tenella infection in the fowl and E. stiedae infection in the rabbit.