Evaluación de una infestación experimental por Taenia pisiformis en conejos de ceba (Oryctolagus cuniculus)”

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate an experimental infestation by Taenia pisiformis in fattening rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the same one that was carried out in the Experimental Farm Querochaca of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Technical University of Ambato; 48 rabbits weaned (30 to 35 days), without sexed, the same ones that were randomly divided into two experimental groups of 24 each, receiving group I an oral dose of 1ml per animal containing 2000 viable eggs of Taenia pisiformes diluted in physiological solution and a group 0 (control), with placebo solution. The objective was to evaluate the effect of experimental infestation on weight behavior, biochemical and hematological parameters, and inflammatory reactions in postmortem organs. As a result, a decrease in body condition and average daily weight gain were obtained, as well as group I with respect to the control group; the blood measurement showed an anemia, reflected in the decrease of red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit for the infested group, in addition a marked elevation of eosinophils and basophils was observed with reference to the control group. The blood biochemistry indicated that liver function (ALT enzymes, increased AST) altered and total proteins decreased, both significantly with respect to the control (p <0.001); It is concluded that the infestation by Taenia pisiformis in rabbits affects the liver and kidneys, interferes with the growth and fattening of the parasitized rabbits, having implications on the blood metric, also showing a significant direct relationship between the number of cysticerci observed and the levels of parasitosis by Coccidia spp.