Eimeria magna Pérard, 1925: study of the endogenous development of parental and precocious strains

The endogenous development of a parental strain of E. magna and its deriving precocious line was studied after inoculation of coccidia-free rabbits with oocysts or sporocysts directly into the duodenum and using electron microscopy. Four meront generations could be observed mainly in the jejunum and ileum for the parent strain. The first merogony began 24 h post-inoculation (h p.i). and meronts were matured about 48 h p.i. The second and the third generation were complete at 66 and 84 h p.i. respectively. Thus, each generation needs approximately 16–20 h for maturation. The fourth generation appeared 102 h p.i. and the young gamonts were present 120 h p.i. As in the other rabbit Eimeria, two types of meronts were described: A and B. The morphology of all endogenous stages of the precocious line was similar but refractile bodies were absent in the first generation merozoites and the fourth generation meront was lacking.