RABBIT COCCIDIUM 033 



Order. Coccidiidea 



The Coccidiidea, with a single exception, are intra-cellular 

 during the trophic stage, and present a dimorphism or alternation 

 of generations ; the one is endogenous and asporular, deter- 

 mining the reproduction of the parasite within the host, the other 

 exogenous and sporular and permitting of infection. 



Coccidial Disease of Rabbits 



This is a disease caused by a sporozoon, the Eimeria stiedce 

 (Coccidium oviforme or cuniculi), and often met with in warrens 

 and hutches ; in some of the former as many as 90 per cent, 

 of the animals may be affected. The young animals suffer 

 most, and become infected when they cease to suckle and 

 commence to eat green food, the adult animal as a rule 

 resisting the disease. The affected animals waste, suffer from 

 enteritis, and a large proportion die in from one to three 

 weeks, the condition being known as "wet-snout" among the 

 keepers. The parasites occur in the intestine, bile-ducts, and liver 

 in large numbers. The parasite of the liver and of the intestine may 

 be different species. Each parasite is ovoid in shape, measuring 

 36 //. in length and 22 p, in breadth, is enclosed in a firm translucent- 

 cyst, which encircles a very granular protoplasm. Sometimes this 

 protoplasm becomes condensed so as to form a spherical mass 

 lying free within the cyst (Fig. 58, A). In the intestine and bile- 

 ducts the parasites are attached to the epithelial cells, and in the 

 liver, if the animal lives beyond the acute stage, set up some 

 remarkable changes. The affected liver is studded with greyish- 

 white nodules varying in size from a pin's head to a pea. On 

 making sections and examining them microscopically, it is found 

 that these nodules consist of dilated bile-ducts filled with a much 

 hypertrophied and convoluted mucous membrane, which forms 

 branched projections covered with cubical epithelium, among 

 which the parasites occur in great numbers (Plate XXVII, a). A 

 curious fact is that subcutaneous or intravenous inoculation, or 

 inoculation into the liver of a healthy rabbit with the coccidia from 

 another rabbit, fails to induce the disease. 



The coccidium has a complicated development history, and 

 infection only seems possible in one of the stages. In order to 

 study the life-cycle the parasite must be placed under suitable 



