Journal article
Identification and characterisation of an immunodiagnostic marker for cyathostomin developing stage larvae
HEG McWilliam, AJ Nisbet, SMJ Dowdall, JE Hodgkinson, JB Matthews
International Journal for Parasitology | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2010
Abstract
Parasitic nematodes of the group Cyathostominae are an important cause of disease in horses. This group consists of approximately 50 species, all of which have similar life cycles that involve encystment of larval stages in the large intestinal wall. Encysted larvae can persist for months to years and, occasionally, large numbers can accumulate and emerge synchronously to cause severe pathology, resulting in diarrhoea, weight loss, colic and/or oedema. This syndrome, known as larval cyathostominosis, can be fatal in up to 50% of cases, despite treatment. There is no diagnostic method that enables detection of the encysted larval burden. Previously, we identified two native antigen complexes ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Funding is gratefully received from the Horserace Betting Levy Board and the Thoroughbred Breeders Association for this project. We thank Professors Sandy Love (University of Glasgow, Scotland), Tom Klei (Louisiana State University, USA) and Dr Tim Mair (Bell Equine Practice, Kent, England) for the generous supply of some of the sera used in this work and Dr Vitaliy Kharchenko (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) for identifying the adult cyathostomins to species. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of Jeanie Finlayson (Moredun Research Institute, Scotland) and Dr. Tom McNeilly (Moredun Research Institute) for input into the immunolocalisation studies, Claire McArthur (Moredun Research Institute) for the supply of IL3 and Dr Jill Sales (Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland) for advice regarding the statistical analyses.