IntroductionCoccidiosis, caused by parasites of numerous Eimeria species, has long been recognized as an economically significant disease in the chicken industry worldwide. The rise of anti-coccidian resistance has driven a search for other parasite management techniques. Recombinant antigen vaccination presents a highly feasible alternative. Properly identifying antigens that might trigger a potent immune response is one of the major obstacles to creating a viable genetically modified vaccine.MethodsThis study evaluated a reverse immunology approach for the identification of B-cell epitopes. Antisera from rabbits and hens inoculated with whole-sporozoites of E. tenella were used to identify Western blot antigens. The rabbit IgG fraction from the anti-sporozoite serum exhibited the highest reactogenicity; consequently, it was purified and utilized to screen two random Phage-display peptide libraries (12 mer and c7c mer). After three panning rounds, 20 clones from each library were randomly selected, their nucleotide sequences acquired, and their reactivity to anti-sporozoite E. tenella serum assessed. The selected peptide clones inferred amino acid sequences matched numerous E. tenella proteins.Results and ConclusionsThe extracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor-like (EGF-like) repeats, and the thrombospondin type-I (TSP-1) repeats of E. tenella micronemal protein 4 (EtMIC4) matched with the c7c mer selected clones CNTGSPYEC (2/20) and CMSTGLSSC (1/20) respectively. The clone CSISSLTHC that matched with a conserved hypothetical protein of E. tenella was widely selected (3/20). Selected clones from the 12-mer phage display library AGHTTQFNSKTT (7/20), GPNSAFWAGSER (2/20) and HFAYWWNGVRGP (8/20) showed similarities with a cullin homolog, elongation factor-2 and beta-dynein chain a putative E. tenella protein, respectively. Four immunodominant clones were previously selected and used to immunize rabbits. By ELISA and Western blot, all rabbit anti-clone serums detected E. tenella native antigens.DiscussionThus, selected phagotopes contained recombinant E. tenella antigen peptides. Using antibodies against E. tenella sporozoites, this study demonstrated the feasibility of screening Phage-display random peptide libraries for true immunotopes. In addition, this study looked at an approach for finding novel candidates that could be used as an E. tenella recombinant epitope-based vaccine.

With the growing adoption of digital technology in healthcare organizations, it is important to understand nursing professionals' behavior and challenges, and the corresponding privacy implications around digital technology use. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 participants (16 nursing professionals, and five nursing faculties) in the USA. In our study with nursing professionals, we explored how they used digital technology and protected sensitive health data at their workplace. We investigated their understanding of privacy breaches and possible consequences, the challenges they encountered to maintaining privacy, and their workarounds to deal with such issues. We looked into the support that professional nurses receive in the form of organizational training, and how they collaborate with the IT department at their institution to address technical issues. In addition, we shed light on the gap between their academic preparation and professional needs in the context of digital technology use and privacy protection, where we also interviewed five nursing faculties to get more in-depth understanding of this issue from the point of view of academia. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights for the CSCW community to better understand the challenges and privacy risks in digital technology use by nursing professionals, and lead to our recommendations to address these issues.