Cocci Vaccine

[Trilobite]

A quick Question for the Vets on the forums. I read an article about vaccinating poultry against coccidiosis using a drop of Vaccine (modified or depressed oocytes) to the eye mucosa to initiate an immunity etc. So my question is why couldnt this be done with high end birds (ie those of more value then the cost of the vaccine) and would this then help reduce the plethora of the many proprietry formulations that we seems to use in controlling or treating for coccidiosis.

[Danny]

Eimeriavax is the product and it uses the word "vaccine" very loosely. The way it works is simple. Each drop of "vaccine" contains approx 400 oocysts shared equally between the species Eimeria acervulina, E. maxima, E. necatrix, and E. tenella. These are a weakened strain. They enter the eye, flow down the nasolacrimal duct, into the throat where they are swallowed. They then pass, relatively unnnoticed through the gut into the rearing shed floor (the vaccine is really just a means of seeding a fresh pen with small numbers of poorly pathogenic coccidia). It then gets consumed by the next chicken and at this stage the chicken mounts an small immune response in much the same way as if it was exposed to natural coccidia levels, but without the chance of dying in the interim.
It then passes through again and the cycle repeats, and full "vaccination" is achieved.

Would it work in finches. Probably not as it relies on the bird reinfecting itself with its own faeces twice after exposure to get a response and whether the poultry species will be fully protective in a passerine would need to be assessed.

[Myzomela]

As Danny has said, this is a vaccine for Eimeria species of coccidia.

Nearly all finch & other cage bird coccidia are Isospora species and fairly species specific, so a chicken vaccine would be very unlikely to help our birds.

[Trilobite]

Thanks Guys, thought it would be too good to be true, on face value it seemed too simple - devils in the detail

[Myzomela]

No worries Trilobite,
I only wish there was a vaccine- it would make life simpler!