Inhibited development in Ostertagia ostertagi infections – a diapause phenomenon in a nematode

Abstract

Experiments are described which show that in a recently isolated field strain of the cattle nematode, Ostertagia ostertagi, the primary stimulus to the induction of inhibited development at the early fourth larval stage (EL4) in the host is chilling of the infective larvae (L3). Thus exposure of L3 to a temperature of 4 °C for 8 weeks prior to their oral administration to calves resulted in a mean of 66% of the established worm burden becoming inhibited at the EL4 stage. This provides an explanation for the seasonal occurrence in Britain of inhibited EL4 stages of O. ostertagi in cattle during the cold climate of late autumn and winter.If the L3 stages were exposed to chilling for a prolonged period (> 19 weeks), prior to infection of calves, then the prevalence of inhibited EL4 stages amongst the worms established declined. After 33 weeks chilling the worm population consisted almost entirely of adults and only 2% inhibited EL4 stages. This suggested that a selective mortality of inhibition prone L3 was taking place and explained why under natural grazing conditions inhibition prone L3 were not available on the pasture in spring.The duration of inhibition at the EL4 stage in calves infected with chilled L3 was consistently between 16 and 18 weeks and maturation of the majority of the inhibited larvae occurred spontaneously after such a period and irrespective of season. This period is equivalent to the duration of a normal winter in Britain when conditions unsuitable for the free living development of O. ostertagi larvae prevail.The induction of inhibition by the environmental stimulus of chilling, the fixed period for the duration of inhibition within the host and the spontaneous maturation of the inhibited larvae are characteristic of a true diapause.