A macro- and light microscopical study of the pathology of <i>Calicophoron microbothrium</i> infection in experimentally infected cattle

Abstract

Twelve Tuli weaner steers aged 1 year were randomly subdivided into three groups of four animals and infected with different doses of Calicophoron microbothrium metacercariae. Each animal in Group I received a low dose (LD) of 5 000 metacercariae, Group II a medium dose (MD) of 15 000 metacercariae, Group III a high dose (HD) of 25 000 metacercariae and one additional animal was kept as an uninfected control (C). After infection, one animal from each group was slaughtered on Day 28, 42, 56 and 84 post infection (pi) and samples from the ileum, jejunum, duodenum, abomasum and the rumen were collected for histopathological and cytological examination. On Day 28 pi, the gross pathological lesions observed in the duodenum of the LD and the MD animals were similar and comprised duodenal thickening, corrugation, hyperaemia, petechiation and ulceration. In the HD animal the duodenal lesions were similar but more severe. The abomasal folds were severely oedematous in the MD group and nearly occluded the abomasal lumen. Moderate oedema of the abomasal folds was also present in the LD and HD animals. The gross pathological lesions regressed in all the infected groups with increasing age of infection and had disappeared completely by Day 56 pi. On Day 28 pi the histopathological lesions in the duodenum and jejunum of the LD and MD groups were similar, comprising subtotal villous atrophy, hyperplasia of Brunner's glands and Peyer's patches and moderate infiltration of eosinophils, mast cells and a few globule leukocytes, basophils and lymphocytes in the lamina propria. The HD group had total villous atrophy, severe hyperplasia and cystic dilatation of Brunner's glands, which had expanded to cover the entire submucosa. On Day 42 pi the histopathological lesions were still present in the MD and the HD groups comprising subtotal villous atrophy and hyperplasia of Brunner's glands. Heavy infiltrations of eosinophils, moderate amounts of mast cells and a few basophils, globule leukocytes and lymphocytes were still present in the lamina propria of all three groups. On Day 56 pi, a few glands were still cystic in the MD and the HD groups. Moderate cell infiltrations were still present in the lamina propria of all the three groups and by Day 84 pi complete regeneration had occurred in all animals.

Observations on the biology, epidemiology and economic relevance of rumen flukes (Paramphistomidae) in cattle kept in a temperate environment

“…Most of the rumen fluke positive cattle in our study had relatively low forestomach fluke counts (Fig. 6) when compared to reliable reports from hot and wet regions (Rolfe et al, 1991;Mavenyengwa et al, 2005).. Consequently, there were insufficient animals with high enough rumen fluke burdens to enable statistically validated assessment of effects of the size of the rumen fluke burdens on growth rates. There was no statistically significant association between rumen fluke infection and carcase grades (using the EUROP system, where E represents excellent and P represents poor conformation), or fatness scores (on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is very fat), with Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon pvalues of 0.061 and 0.657, respectively.…”

“…Co-infection with C. daubneyi and F. hepatica has also been shown in French cows, albeit at a lower frequency (Rieu et al, 2007) unproven assumption that high burdens of several hundred or more adult flukes in the forestomach influence faecal consistency and cause production loss (Rolfe et al, 1991;Mavenyengwa et al, 2005;Dorny et al, 2011;Malrait et al, 2015) as a consequence of damage to the ruminal papillae caused by parasite attachment by their ventral suckers (Fuertes et al, 2015). However, in our study, multivariable regression analysis showed no statistically significant effect of forestomach rumen fluke infection status on growth rates when adjusting for other important factors such as F. hepatica co-infections.…”

“…Production loss has been associated with heavy burdens of adult Paramphistomum sp. in experimentally infected sheep (Rolfe et al, 1994) and C. microbothrium in experimentally infected cattle (Mavenyengwa et al, 2005). However, in natural infections, effects of rumen flukes may be confounded by concurrent infections with other helminth parasites, in particular F. hepatica (Dorny et al, 2011), which has similar intermediate host, environmental and climatic requirements.…”

Morphological and molecular identification with frequency analysis of Calicophoron microbothrioides in central Chile

“…The higher abundance of C. daubneyi has been also associated with higher frequency of thin or watery fecal consistence and lower frequency of normal feces (MALRAIT et al, 2015). On the other hand, the intensity of infection with another Calicophoron, C. microbothrium, was associated with severity of lesions in the abomasal folds, comprising edema, as well as in the duodenum, comprising duodenal thickening, corrugation, hyperemia, petechiation, ulceration, callous atrophy, hyperplasia of Brunner's glands and Peyer's patches, and infiltration of eosinophils, mast cells, basophils and lymphocytes in the lamina propria (MAVENYENGWA et al, 2005). Although there is no knowledge about the economic impact of C. microbothrioides, the mentioned damage of other Calicophoron species suggest that it is important to develop control strategies.…”

Prevalencia De Tremátodes De La Familia Paramphistomatidae en Bovinos Del Distrito De Yurimaguas, Provincia De Alto Amazonas, Loreto.

“…Estudios sobre Cotylophorum cotylophorum con respecto a lesiones patológicas en el bovino no existen, y solo han sido referidos en Calicophorum microbothrium y P. ichikawai, particularmente en bovinos y ovinos, en zonas de África y Australia, respectivamente (Boray, 1971; Mavenyengwa et al, 2005).…”