The effect of natural worm loss on the estimate of anthelmintic activity in an anthelmintic test with Haemonchus contortus

Abstract

An anthelmintic test was carried out in lambs against fourth-stage larvae of Haemonchus contortus to determine whether a natural loss of worms from either untreated control animals or from animals treated with anthelmintic affected the estimated activity of the anthelmintic.Thirty-two lambs were each infected with 1500 larvae of H. contortus on 4 consecutive days and divided into 4 groups of 8 animals. Two groups of lambs were treated with anthelmintic on day 7, the first group being slaughtered on day 9 and the second on day 29. An untreated control group was slaughtered 7 days after infection and a second control group was killed 29 days after infection.The numbers of worms recovered indicated that in the untreated control lambs there was an estimated daily loss of about 7% of the parasite population between the first day of infection and day 29, and in the lambs given anthelmintic an estimated daily loss of about 2% of the worm population was indicated between days 9 and 29. If the rate of worm loss is not the same in the untreated control hosts and in the treated animals, the estimate of anthelmintic efficacy will vary according to the time of autopsy. To minimize the possibility of an incorrect result occurring in an anthelmintic trial due to a natural loss of worms, it is recommended that the untreated control and the treated lambs are slaughtered on the same day, and that the autopsy is carried out as soon as possible after anthelmintic therapy.