Through this study we assessed the metabolic and pathological changes in broilers experimentally infected with oocysts of Eimeria maxima. To perform the experiment, we used 150 broiler strain cooB males, with ten days of age, were randomized according to weight and randomly assigned to two experimental groups: the control group was inoculated with 0.5？mL of distilled water; the infected group inoculated with 0.5？mL of solution containing sporulated oocysts of Eimeria maxima. The live performance was evaluated on day 0 (day of inoculation), 5°, 10°, 15°, 25°, and 35°？dpi, being slaughtered by cervical dislocation, fifteen birds/group. Although the sum in meat production was higher in the control group, the weight of the heart and gizzard of the experimental animals showed no significant difference, while the liver had difference on day 5°, 15°, and 35°？dpi. The pathologic evaluation showed congested mucosa and presence of large amounts of mucus at 6 dpi. Therefore, it is concluded that the dose of ？E. maxima inoculated in the experimental group was enough to cause harm to the animal organism. 1. Introduction In recent decades there has been an increase in consumption of chicken meat in Brazil and in the world, and it has forced the development of technologies to be employed in industrial poultry production to improve food and earliness of chickens that are taken for slaughter [1]. The chicken meat consumption is increasing in Brazil. The average in 2011 was 47 kilograms, and in 2010 it was 44？kg per capita, winning the third place in the global ranking of per capita chicken meat consumption, just behind the United States and Saudi Arabia [2]. According to Avisite [3], preliminary data from USDA indicate a volume of just over four (4) million tons in chicken meat exporting, which represents an increase of 4% compared with the year 2009. Even with the use of high technology, the intensive system of poultry production does not ensure that the poultry production environment is free of pathogens that harm the efficiency of utilization of nutrients as a result of the probable enteric disorders onset [4]. The main parasites found in poultry is caused by protozoa of the genus Eimeria, also known as coccidia, being responsible for serious economic losses, mainly due to diarrhea and deaths in young animals [1, 5]. The eimerioses present an endemic character in poultry farms, being descripted in seven Eimeria species that cause coccidiosis in poultry: E. acervulina, E. praecox, E. maxima, E. mitis, E. necatrix, E. tenella, and E. brunetti [1, 6, 7]. The agents that
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