The use of enzyme electrophoresis for the identification of the species of Eimeria present in field isolates of coccidia.

The electrophoretic mobility of glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI) had been used to identify Eimeria acervulina, E. praecox and E. mivati in isolates of coccidia from commercial sites in the United Kingdom. Mixtures of two or three species gave separate bands upon electrophoresis and each species could be identified provided that it formed at least 10-20% of the total number of oocytes present in a sample of 8 x 10(6) oocysts. The principal forms of GPI corresponded to the GPI of E. acervulina (H), E. praecox (H) and E. mivati (W) and were found in 38, 34 and 8 isolates respectively of the 46 examined. Three further variants of GPI are described.