Immunoproteomic analyses identify broadly cross-reactive sporozoite immunogens of Eimeria maxima recognized by antisera from chickens infected with E. maxima, E. necatrix, E. tenella or E. acervulina.

Coccidiosis is a widespread, protozoan disease that continues to impose a high risk to the global poultry industry despite various control measures, including live, attenuated vaccines. To set the stage for next-generation vaccines that are broadly protective, our study aimed to identify sporozoite immunogens that are cross-reactive with hyper-immune sera against Eimeria maxima, E. tenella, E. necatrix and E.acervulina. In all, 2D electrophoresis, immunoblots and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS revealed 12 immunogenic proteins of interest, including 11 that have amino acid sequences matching those of non-redundant proteins in the NCBI database. Bioinformatics analyses revealed that these proteins are involved in protein translation, modification and degradation, signal transduction and regulation, cell structure and transport, metabolic regulation and RNA binding and processing. These findings now offer multiple feasible targets for the design of vaccine constructs.