Some observations on immunologically mediated inhibited Teladorsagia circumcincta and their subsequent resumption of development in sheep.

Abstract

Two similar experiments were conducted with groups of yearling sheep which had been trickle infected with Teladorsagia circumcincta for 6 weeks, treated with anthelmintic then challenged with a single dose of 50,000 larvae. Ten days after challenge these sheep contained significantly fewer worms and a significantly higher proportion of arrested early fourth stage larvae than controls which had not received the trickle infection. However, by 19 or 23 days after challenge most of the arrested worms had resumed development, a process which was accelerated in a group treated with corticosteroids. It was concluded that under these conditions arrested development of Teladorsagia was a short-lived, immunologically mediated phenomenon which could be reversed by immuno-suppressing the sheep.