Schafer Salvadori Andressa
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria
Brazil
Title: Immune response of lambs experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus and parenterally treated with a combination of zinc and copper
Biography
Biography: Schafer Salvadori Andressa
Abstract
The present study evaluated the immune response of lambs (21) experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus and treated with Zn and Cu. Lambs were divided into three groups: Control group, infected group-infection performed with 15,000 larvae of H. contortus/animal and group infected and treated subcutaneously with 1.5 mg/kg of Zn and 0.45 mg/kg of Cu on days 10 and 45 post-infection [PI]. Blood samples were drawn on days 0, 14, 28, 42, 56 and 70 PI in order to determine the serum concentrations of IL1, IL4 and IL6, INFγ, TNF-α and IgA, IgE, IgG and IgM. At the end of the experiment, animals were euthanatized and the parasite load was quantified. In addition, the concentrations of Zn and Cu in liver were assessed. Between days 14 and 42 there was a significant increase (P<0.001) of cytokine and immunoglobulin levels in IG and ITG when compared with the animals of CG. After day 56, the IG animals showed serum level of interleukins and immunoglobulins lower than ITG animals (P<0.001). Regarding the liver concentrations of Zn and Cu the infection showed to lead to a depletion of these minerals; therefore, the supplementation did not prevent this effect. The results of this study indicate that the administration of Zn and Cu was capable of enhancing the immune response in lambs experimentally infected with H. contortus. However, it did not reduce egg counts in the feces or the number of adult parasites in the abomasum.