We recently developed a novel selection method based on identification and selection of chickens with an inherently high and low phenotype of pro-inflammatory mediators, including interleukin (IL)-6, CXCLi2, and CCLi2. We have shown the resultant high line of chickens is more resistant to the foodborne pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis compared to the low line (Swaggerty et al., 2014). If the high line of birds were more resistant to both a foodborne pathogen and a poultry pathogen, such as Eimeria,it would provide additional validation of selection based on pro-inflammatory mediators, and therefore be more appealing and valuable to the poultry industry. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether the same trend of enhanced resistance (decreased incidence of cecal pathology) in the high line of birds was observed following challenge with 2 different field isolates of E. tenella.