Experimental Eimeria bovis infection in calves: a histopathological study.

Eight male holstein calves, four to six weeks of age, were infected with 100,000 sporulated oocysts of a culture containing Eimeria bovis. The calves were injected with steroids on days 13, 14 and 15 and killed on days 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24 and 26 postinfection. The lesions caused by experimental E. bovis infection in the small and large intestines are characterized by a diphtheritic typhilitis and colitis. Severe lesions were also seen in the last metre of the ileum in a calf killed 19 days after infection. Most of the damage of the intestinal mucosa is caused by the sexual stages. There is destruction and loss of epithelial cells with subsequent exposure of lamina propria and formation of diphtheritic membranes.