EVALUATION OF THE PROTECTIVE VALUE OF SOME TOXOCARA VITULORUM ANTIGENS IN RATS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

Toxocara vitulorum is a nematode parasite of small intestine of buffalo, particularly young age calves, causing high morbidity and mortality. The control of this infection produces considerable economic benefits. Immunization of Wistar rats with different T. vitulorum antigens; (execratory/ secretory antigen (ESAg), peri-enteric fluid antigen (peAg) and embryonated eggs antigen (EEAg)) were evaluated for induction of protection against a challenge oral infection with embryonated eggs of T. vitulorum. It was found that peAg induce the highest protection level (100%) followed by ESAg
(96.4%-97.5%) then EEAg (93.7%-96.7%). Mean number of larvae extracted from immunized rats was significantly (P≤ 0.05) lower than that extracted from the control non-immunized one. The number of larvae collected after digestion of the liver at 3rd day post challenge (dp.c.) was decreased from 998.5 in control rats to 26 and 41.5 in rats immunized with ESAg and EEAg respectively. In the same time no significant (P≤0.05) difference in size of larvae extracted from immunized and control positive rats. For conclusion, the study demonstrated the value of rats as experimental model for investigation T. vitulorum infection. It characterized PeAg as a valuable immunogenic and protective antigen in minimize the infection by T. vitulorum between mother and calves in infected farms.

Keywords

Journal of the Egyptian Society of Parasitology
Volume 47, Issue 2
August 2017
Pages 293-301

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