Background: Coccidiosis is a serious protozoal disease of poultry. The iden-tification of Eimeria species has important implications for diagnosis and con-trol as well as for epidemiology. The molecular characterization of Eimeria spe-cies infecting Egyptian baladi chickens was investigated. Methods:Eimeria species oocysts were harvested from intestines of naturally infected Egyptian baldi chickens. The morphometry characterization of oocysts along with COCCIMORPH software was done. The DNA was extracted ini-tially by freezing and thawing then the prepared samples was subjected to commercial DNA kits. The DNA products were analyzed through conven-tional polymerase chain reaction by using amplified region (SCAR) marker. Results:The PCR results confirmed the presence of 7 Eimeria species in the examined fecal samples of Egyptian baldi breed with their specific ampilicon sizes being E. acervulina (811bp), E. brunette (626bp), E. tenella (539bp), E. max-ima (272bp), E. necatrix (200bp), E. mitis (327bp) and E. praecopx (354bp). A sequencing of the two most predominant species of Eimeria was done, on E. tenella and E. máxima. Analysis of the obtained sequences revealed high identi-ties 99% between Egyptian isolates and the reference one. Similarly, E. maxima isolated from Egyptian baldi chickens showed 98% nucleotide identities with the reference strain. Only single nucleotide substitution was observed among the Egyptian E. tenella isolates (A181G) when compared to the reference one. The Egyptian isolates acquired 4 unique mutations (A68T, C164T, G190A and C227G) in compared with the reference sequence. Conclusion:This is the first time to identify the 7 species of Eimeria from Egyptian baladi chickens. |