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SUMMARY:Understanding Eimeria population\, genetic and antigenic diversity
  to improve control against coccidiosis - Professor Damer Blake\, Royal Ve
 terinary College
DTSTART:20250212T160000Z
DTEND:20250212T170000Z
UID:TALK226990@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:128158
DESCRIPTION:_Eimeria_ can cause the disease coccidiosis\, most notably in 
 chickens where the global cost has been estimated to exceed UK£10 billion
  every year. Anticoccidial chemoprophylaxis has become an essential compon
 ent of modern poultry production\, although resistance is rife. Live paras
 ite vaccines are available\, but production capacity and relative cost lim
 it uptake. In response\, interest in the development of cost-effective rec
 ombinant vaccines has been rekindled. The successful translation of such v
 accines to the field will depend in part on parasite population structure 
 and the extent of pre-existing antigenic diversity\, influencing opportuni
 ties for vaccine breakthrough. For _Eimeria_ these variables remain almost
  completely unknown. Seven _Eimeria_ species have long been recognised to 
 infect chickens\, all with a global enzootic distribution. However\, the d
 escription of three new species with high prevalence across much of the so
 uthern hemisphere that are not controlled by current vaccines has disrupte
 d long established dogma. Using SNP-based genotyping population structure 
 has been sampled for _Eimeria tenella_\, revealing an intriguing dichotomy
  between northern and southern populations characterised by distinctive sp
 atial haplotype occurrence with evidence of near clonality and panmixia. D
 eep amplicon sequencing hints at unexpected complexity in field _Eimeria_ 
 populations while targeted exon sequencing has revealed a conflicting lack
  of diversity for the vaccine candidates Apical Membrane Antigen 1 (AMA1) 
 and Immune Mapped Protein 1 (IMP1)\, suggesting that for _Eimeria_ protein
  functionality may outweigh immune evasion. This is in direct contrast to 
 the situation in other apicomplexans such as _Plasmodium_\, and is most li
 kely underpinned by the biology of the direct and acute coccidian life cyc
 le in the definitive host.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Tennis Court Road\, Dept of Pathology.
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