Chemotherapy of East Coast fever: parvaquone treatment of Theileria parva parva at intervals after infection.

Groups of seven cattle were infected with Theileria parva stabilate and treated with parvaquone (20 mg kg-1 bodyweight) zero, four, eight, 12, 14 or 16 days after infection. Very early treatments resulted in a rapid recovery or no detectable parasitosis and some cattle were subsequently susceptible to homologous challenge. Treatments applied before extensive lymphoid or other organ damage had developed were successful and some cattle treated in advanced disease also recovered. Clinical pathological indications of liver or kidney damage were recorded very late in the disease suggesting that prompt diagnosis and treatment are more important than supportive therapy for survival. Treatment on day 8 after infection allowed the appearance of macroschizonts and a transient pancytopenia but no other disease signs. This group was solidly immune to challenge and this timing and treatment could be recommended for use in an infection and treatment method of immunisation.

Efficacy, toxicity and metabolism of imidocarb dipropionate in the treatment of Babesia ovis infection in sheep.

An intramuscular dose of 1.2 mg kg-1 of imidocarb dipropionate (IMDP) was effective in controlling fatal infections with Babesia ovis in sheep. The sheep were infected by the intravenous injection of sheep blood containing B ovis. A severe recrudescence of infection occurred in most sheep 10 to 14 days after therapy but this could be controlled by a second dose of 1.2 mg kg-1 IMDP. Studies on the toxicology, residues and metabolism of IMDP showed this to be a safe dosage regimen. Transient or mild signs of toxicity were seen at 2.4 and 4.8 mg kg-1 IMDP. Severe toxicity was observed in sheep treated with 9.6 mg kg-1.

The ability of diamphenethide to control immature Fasciola hepatica in sheep at a lower than standard dose level.

Groups of eight Welsh Mountain sheep were dosed with diamphenethide at the rate of 70 mg/kg bodyweight at either one, four, six or eight weeks after artificial infection with approximately 300 Fasciola hepatica metacercariae. Comparisons were made with similarly infected but undosed sheep and with sheep which were neither infected nor dosed. The good clearance of flukes up to six weeks of age (above 97 per cent on pooled data) was reflected in the plasma concentrations of the accepted liver damage marker enzymes glutamate dehydrogenase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase. Highly significant correlations were demonstrated between the numbers of flukes recovered, the plasma levels of these enzymes and haemoglobin and plasma albumin values. At 70 mg/kg, diamphenethide was shown to be able to control F hepatica populations of up to six weeks of age. The systematic use of diamphenethide at this dose level at intervals of up to six weeks during the period of metacercarial challenge should prevent ovine fascioliasis.

Appraisal of the suitability of a disease model of acute salmonellosis in calves for chemotherapeutic studies.

When young calves were dosed orally with 10(10) organisms of a culture of Salmonella dublin, typical symptoms of acute salmonellosis followed with a death rate of 86 per cent. Peak mortality occurred six days after infection. As a result of a statistical appraisal of the consistency of mortality in groups of untreated calves a model is proposed for the therapeutic evaluation of antibacterial compounds, which compares the number of survivors in groups of seven or eight calves with a minimum of four needed for significant indication of efficacy. Bacteriological and pathological investigations showed that the experimental disease was initially an acute systemic infection followed by severe enteritis. Measurements of plasma concentrations of enzymes and other constituents did not achieve the desired objective of establishing a method of quantitative evaluation of the clinical status of individual animals, although some changes occurred which were consistent with the pathology of the disease and suggested possible mechanisms by which jaundice occurred.

Young Scientists Award Lecture 1977: An investigation into the value of some clinical biochemical tests in the detection of minimal changes in liver morphology and function in the rat.

Minimal liver damage was induced in groups of rats by the administration of three toxicants, viz. carbon tetrachloride, sodium phenobarbitone and orotic acid. Serial blood samples were taken from the animals during the course of the experiment and the plasma levels of a number of enzymes, substrates and metabolites were measured. Liver and kidney samples were also taken at appropriate times after dosing and examined histologically for evidence of drug induced damage. The results of the experiment show that (I) no single test gave unequivocal evidence of liver damage for all three compounds, (II) the conventional liver function tests, alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and alkaline phosphatase, whose plasma activities are usually reported in toxicity studies, were not the most sensitive indicators of the minimal liver cell damage caused by the drugs used in this experiment, (III) knowledge of the intracellular location of the diagnostic enzyme makes it possible to describe, at least in part, the nature of the changes within the liver, (IV) measurement of plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels can provide information about disruption in lipid metabolism, (V) the times at which blood samples are taken are most important if transient drug effects on the liver are to be detected.