The growth of Sarcocystis neurona, isolate UCD1, in continuous culture was examined in 10 cell lines to identify growth conditions and methods for the preparation of parasites free of gross host cell contamination for molecular studies. The unpredictable, slow release of merozoites in most cell lines prompted development of a method to synchronously release the parasites from infected host cells. The calcium ionophore A23187 at a concentration of 1 microM was found to release intracellular merozoites with a 40 min treatment at 37 degrees C. The release of merozoites en masse from attached host cells allowed for the rapid collection of relatively pure parasites from the culture supernatant. This release of merozoites occurred in five different host cell lines. The ionophore-released parasites were highly infectious for host cells and appeared to be morphologically identical to naturally released merozoites, except that the treated merozoites had an increased number of micronemes when examined by electron microscopy. The ionophore did not enhance the release of sporozoites from sporocysts, but freezing in the presence of 5% DMSO released sporozoites that were infectious to bovine monocytes in in vitro culture.