The detection and cccurrence of triclabendazole resistance in fasciola hepatica in sheep in England and Wales

Kamaludeen, Juriah (2015) The detection and cccurrence of triclabendazole resistance in fasciola hepatica in sheep in England and Wales. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

Text KamaludeenJur_Aug2015_6439.pdf - Unspecified Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (8MB)

Abstract

Sheep are at risk from the disease fasciolosis, caused by Fasciola hepatica. For sheep, triclabendazole (TCBZ) is the drug of choice as it kills the early, immature stages of the parasite. However, TCBZ is becoming increasingly ineffective due to emergence of resistance. The aim of this thesis was to identify the most appropriate diagnostic test to detect infection with F. hepatica in sheep, the optimum faecal egg count reduction method to detect TCBZ resistance, and thirdly to assess the prevalence of TCBZ resistance in Britain. In Chapter 2, three different techniques that have been described in the literature to diagnose F. hepatica infection: faecal egg counts (FEC), coproantigen ELISA and a PCR-based assay, were compared. The objectives were to compare the sensitivity of these techniques to detect early infection in experimentally infected sheep and measure the efficacy of TCBZ against a susceptible isolate. For this, a total of 12 sheep were infected with 200-215 TCBZ susceptible metacercariae and infection was tracked on a weekly basis from 0 to 14 weeks post-infection (wpi) at which point they were divided into two groups of six. Group 1 was left untreated and Group 2 animals were treated with TCBZ (Fasinex®; 10 mg/kg) per os. Faecal samples were collected on the day of treatment and daily until 10 days post treatment (dpt). At 10 dpt, all sheep were killed for liver fluke recovery and enumeration. Results showed that the coproantigen ELISA could detect infection from 5 wpi (2/12 sheep), and all sheep were positive by 8 wpi. FEC was less sensitive at detecting early infection, 1/12 animal became positive at 7 wpi and all sheep were positive at 11 wpi. The PCR failed to detect infection at any time point. The efficacy of TCBZ against F. hepatica was 97% with p

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	Date: 2015-09-17 (completed)
Subjects:	?? Q1 ??
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2016 07:50
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2022 02:09
DOI:	10.17638/02026439
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/2026439