Effects on inhibition of development of the transfer of Ostertagia ostertagi between geographical regions of Australia

Abstract

SUMMARYPasture plots in a warm coastal region were separately contaminated in the autumn, winter and spring with eggs of a coastal strain of Ostertagia ostertagi derived from dairy calves. At the same times, a parallel set of plots was contaminated by a strain transferred from within a beef cattle management system in a cooler tablelands region. A reciprocal transfer of the coastal strain was also made to the tablelands, where pasture plots were contaminated with eggs of both strains of O. ostertagi in winter. Successive groups of parasite-free calves were grazed on the plots for 10–14 days at 4-week intervals and then killed for worm counts 14 days after their removal from pasture. In both environments, irrespective of the season of pasture contamination, inhibition of development reached a maximum in spring and the two strains differed only in the proportion of the population inhibited, which was significantly greater for the table- lands strain. There was no strain difference for either numbers of infective larvae on pasture or total O. ostertagi numbers. This suggested that the difference between coastal and tablelands populations in the extent of inhibition is genetically determined. If an environmental stimulus was implicated in the spring occurrence of inhibition, the stimulus was provided equally in coastal and tablelands environments and it cannot be exposure to low temperatures.