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The capacity of the fungus Duddingtonia flagrans to prevent strongyle infections in foals on pasture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

M. Larsen ,
P. Nansen ,
C. Grøndahl ,
S. M. Thamsborg ,
J. Grønvold ,
J. Wolstrup ,
S. A. Henriksen  and
J. Monrad
M. Larsen*
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
P. Nansen
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
C. Grøndahl
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
S. M. Thamsborg
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Department of Clinical Studies, Large Animal Medicine, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
J. Grønvold
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Section of Zoology and Molecular Biology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
J. Wolstrup
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Microbiology Section, Department of Ecology and Molecular Biology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
S. A. Henriksen
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark National Veterinary Laboratory, 27 Bülowsvej, DK-1790 Copenhagen V, Denmark
J. Monrad
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author. Tel: + 45 35 282794. Fax: + 45 35 282774. E-mail: mila@kvl.dk
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Summary

A field trial was conducted to evaluate the potential of the nematode-destroying fungus Duddingtonia flagrans to control free-living stages of horse strongyles. In late Spring 2 groups of horses (yearlings) with mixed infections of strongyles were allowed to contaminate 2 equal-sized pastures. One of the groups (F) received a daily dose of D. flagrans mixed in a feed supplement, while the other (C) received a similar amount of supplement without fungus. During a 3-month contamination period strongyle egg counts in faeces and number of infective strongyle larvae harvested from faecal cultures were determined. Grass samples were collected fortnightly. After the contamination period the yearlings were removed and 2 groups of young tracer foals (TF and TC) grazed the fungus and control pastures respectively for 4 weeks, housed for another 15 weeks and then killed to determine their worm burdens. The number of larvae in cultures from group TF was significantly lower than that in TC and herbage infectivity was reduced to a very low level on the pasture grazed by horses fed fungi. The number of Strongylus vulgaris and Strongylus edentatus larvae was also significantly lowered in group TF. Cyathostome larvae recovered from the mucosa of the ventral and dorsal colon and from the caecum were significantly lowered in group TF foals. Also, the number of strongyles found in the gut contents of group TF foals were significantly reduced in the dorsal colon, but numbers of worms in the ventral colon and in the caecum were similar to those of the controls.

Keywords

biological controlDuddingtonia flagransstrongyleshorsesfield trial
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 113 , Issue 1 , July 1996 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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