Impacts of breed type and vaccination on Teladorsagia circumcincta infection in native sheep in Gran Canaria

Abstract

Vaccines and genetic resistance offer potential future alternatives to the exclusive use of anthelmintics to control gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN). Here, a Teladorsagia circumcincta prototype vaccine was administered to two sheep breeds which differ in their relative levels of resistance to infection with GIN. Vaccination of the more susceptible Canaria Sheep (CS) breed induced significant reductions in worm length and numbers of worm eggs in utero (EIU) when compared to control CS sheep. In the more resistant Canaria Hair Breed (CHB), although vaccination induced a reduction in all parasitological parameters analysed, differences between vaccinated and control sheep were not statistically significant. Such interactions between sheep breed and vaccination may allow better integrated control of GIN in future.