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The effect of age, acquired resistance, pregnancy and lactation on some reactions of cattle to infection with Ostertagia ostertagi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

J. F. Michel ,
M. B. Lancaster  and
C. Hong
J. F. Michel
Affiliation:
Central Veterinary Laboratory, New Haw, Weybridge, Surrey KT15 3NB
M. B. Lancaster
Affiliation:
Central Veterinary Laboratory, New Haw, Weybridge, Surrey KT15 3NB
C. Hong
Affiliation:
Central Veterinary Laboratory, New Haw, Weybridge, Surrey KT15 3NB
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Summary

An experiment is described in which the effects of age, previous infection, pregnancy and lactation on some reactions of cattle to infection with Ostertagia ostertagi were studied. It was found that an acquired resistance to the establishment of worms developed more rapidly in 20-month-old heifers than in calves, that it was unaffected by pregnancy of the host but that it was largely lost by heifers in early lactation. The rate at which populations were turned over, i.e. the mean life-span of worms through the late 4th and 5th stages was unaffected by the factors studied. Although, in the conditions of the experiment, development of the worms was not arrested in susceptible calves, both age of the host and its previous experience of infection were significant causes of arrest, and in previously infected 20-month-old cattle 86% of the worms of a challenge infection were arrested. Pregnancy did not affect the proportion of worms that was arrested but in lactating heifers only marginally more worms were arrested than in calves. Worms that were not arrested grew more rapidly in calves and in lactating heifers than in empty heifers or those in mid-pregnancy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , August 1979 , pp. 157 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

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