Histopathological Studies of Eimeria cameli in the intestine of infected one-humped camel (Camelus dromedaries)

Abstract

Domesticated Old World camels (Camelus dromedarius and Camelus bactrianus) are important for the economy of several countries in Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Coccidiosis is one of the major parasitic diseases in camels which is caused by protozoa of the genus Eimeria, it is considered one of intracellular parasites, transmitted through fecal oral Route. Coccidiosis is responsible for mortality rates of up to 10% in camel calves besides enteritis; also it is characterized by subclinical contagious enteritis in wild and domesticated animals. Although five species of Eimeria were believed to have capability of infecting camels as (E. bactriani, E. rajasthani, E. pellerdyi, and E. dromedarii), the E. cameli is considered the most pathogenic one. A total of 42 samples from small intestine of slaughtered camels were collected from El-Basatin abattoir, Cairo, Egypt. Grossly, the small intestine infected with coccidian showed congested red spots within serosa and mucosa. On histopathological examination, infected tissues showed chronic, hemorrhagic and granulomatous enteritis, the intestinal glands have rose shape appearance in some cases, and complete loss of intestinal gland structure with sever infiltration of chronic inflammatory cells in other cases, hyper eosinophilia and different developmental stages of Eimeria.