Prevalence, infectivity and oocyst sporulation time of rabbit-coccidia in Taiwan

Prevalence of Eimeria species parasitizing rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Taiwan were investigated. Six Eimeria species, namely: Eimeria media (prevalence, 158/642; 24.6%), Eimeria magna (101/642; 15.7%), Eimeria perforans (58/642; 9.0%), Eimeria coecicola (46/642; 7.2%), Eimeria piriformis (16/642; 2.5%), and Eimeria exigua (9/642; 1.4%) were observed. The overall prevalence of these coccidial infections in rabbits from pet shops and farms was 46.2% and 41.7%, respectively. Concurrent infections involving 2 or 3 species were often observed, while quadruple-infection was rare. Significant differences (p < 0.005) in prevalence were observed between the adult and juvenile rabbits. The minimum time required for oocyst sporulation of E. media, E. piriformis, E. magna, E. perforans, E. exigua, E. coecicola were 10, 20, 32, 12, 16, and 36 hr, respectively. This is the first report on the prevalence of Eimeria intestinal infection in commercial domestic rabbits in Taiwan. We demonstrated that these rabbit-infecting Eimeria species have high biopotential in that the ingestion of a single sporulated oocyst could successfully produce patent infection in a rabbit. In addition, they also possess high host specificity in that they could not infect mice, golden hamsters, Mongolian gerbils, rats, and guinea pigs.