Bonamiosis is a parasitic disease (causative agent: Bonamia ostreae) affecting the European flat oyster Ostrea edulis, responsible for a drastic decline in the aquaculture production of this oyster species. Therefore a selective breeding program for resistance to bonamiosis has been undertaken since 1985 bu Ifremer, leading to the production of several selected oyster families. In the present study, a 6-month cohabitation challenge experiment was performed in order to transmit the disease from wild oysters (injected with the parasite) to two tested families of oysters originating from the selective breeding program. Mortalities were checked daily, and ventricular heart smears were performed on dying or moribund oysters to detect the level of infection to B. ostreae. The first infections occurred after 4 months of challenge in the tested oysters (Family 1 and Family 2). The cumulative mortalities after 5 monts were 58% for the wil oysters, 9% for Family 1 (20-month old at the beginning of the experiment) and 20% for Family 2 (8-month, old). The parasite could be detected in 66.8% of the dying wild oysters, 67.5% of the dying oysters of Family 1, 89% of the dying oysters of Family 2 and only 11% of the surviving oysters of Family 2. The mortality was significantly higher in Family 2 thant in Family 1 (x2= 20.87, p<0.001, d.f.) as well as the level of infection by the parasite found in heart smear (x2=24.34, p<0.001, 4 d.f.). This result demonstrates that prespawning oysters as yong as 1 year-old can become infected with the parasite and die from bonamiosis. This result is inconsistent with the commonly accepted critical age of 2 years-old for the disease development. The most probable cause of the dscrepancy in the development of bonamiosis between the 2 tested families is a difference in genetic background.