Fig. 1

Experimental design, growth performance, intestinal lesion scores, and oocyst shedding among three chicken breeds in response to coccidiosis. A Cobb, Leghorn Ghs6, and Fayoumi M5.1 chickens (n = 10–15) were challenged with sporulated E. maxima (EM) or mock-infected on d 10. Body weight (BW) was recorded for individual birds on d 10 and 17. Small intestinal lesion was scored for each bird, and fecal samples were collected on d 17. B Average weight gain of individual birds in each group between d 10 and 17. Each EM group was compared to the respective mock group within each breed using Student’s t-test. Error bars indicate the standard deviation. The percentage decrease in weight gain is indicated above each challenge group. C Violin plot of intestinal lesion score of each group, with significance determined by the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by Dunn’s pairwise comparisons. No lesions were observed in mock-infected groups. D Box plot of oocysts per gram of feces values from individual birds. Levels of statistical significance are indicated according to one-way ANOVA. No oocysts were observed in the feces of mock-infected birds. ^*P < 0.05, ^****P < 0.0001