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Worm-free sheep

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Title Worm-free sheep
 
Creator Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
 
Description A tropical breed of white hair sheep, St Croix, shows a remarkable immunity to intestinal worms. Within four to six weeks the lambs have developed almost complete resistance.



Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville USA, have been comparing St Croix, which comes from the Virgin Islands with the Dorset. In trials St Croix lambs had 99% fewer worms in their fourth stomach than the Dorset lambs kept under the same conditions. They also passed only 0.5% as many worm eggs in the faeces.



Researchers have found that the resistance is connected with a large number of immune cells called globule leucocytes, which are found in the fourth stomach. It is thought that these cells prevent the worms from attacking the stomach lining. They might even cause the worms to be expelled from the stomach. Unfortunately when the St Croix are crossed with other breeds the cross-bred lambs do not inherit the resistance.



The researchers are now trying to understand how the immune process works. Hopefully this knowledge will make it possible to transfer the resistance to other breeds. Researchers hope that one day it may be possible to transfer this resistance to cattle.



Dr R Gamble Helminthic Diseases Laboratory USDA-ARS BARC East Beltsville MD 20705, USA
A tropical breed of white hair sheep, St Croix, shows a remarkable immunity to intestinal worms. Within four to six weeks the lambs have developed almost complete resistance. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville USA, have...
 
Date 2014-10-08T13:41:16Z
2014-10-08T13:41:16Z
1992
 
Type News Item
 
Identifier CTA. 1992. Worm-free sheep . Spore 38. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
1011-0054
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/45727
 
Language en
 
Relation Spore, Spore 38
 
Publisher CTA
 
Source Spore