Buttle, D. J. orcid.org/0000-0003-2767-0082, Behnke, J. M., Bartley, Y. et al. (7 more authors) (2011) Oral dosing with papaya latex is an effective anthelmintic treatment for sheep infected with Haemonchus contortus. Parasites & Vectors, 4. 36. ISSN 1756-3305
Abstract
Background The cysteine proteinases in papaya latex have been shown to have potent anthelmintic properties in monogastric hosts such as rodents, pigs and humans, but this has not been demonstrated in ruminants.
Methods In two experiments, sheep were infected concurrently with 5,000 infective larvae of Haemonchus contortus and 10,000 infective larvae of Trichostrongylus colubriformis and were then treated with the supernatant from a suspension of papaya latex from day 28 to day 32 post-infection. Faecal egg counts were monitored from a week before treatment until the end of the experiment and worm burdens were assessed on day 35 post-infection.
Results We found that the soluble fraction of papaya latex had a potent in vivo effect on the abomasal nematode H. contortus, but not on the small intestinal nematode T. colubriformis. This effect was dose-dependent and at tolerated levels of gavage with papaya latex (117 μmol of active papaya latex supernatant for 4 days), the H. contortus worm burdens were reduced by 98%. Repeated treatment, daily for 4 days, was more effective than a single dose, but efficacy was not enhanced by concurrent treatment with the antacid cimetidine.
Conclusions Our results provide support for the idea that cysteine proteinases derived from papaya latex may be developed into novel anthelmintics for the treatment of lumenal stages of gastro-intestinal nematode infections in sheep, particularly those parasitizing the abomasum.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Buttle et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Mar 2017 11:35 |
Last Modified: | 20 Mar 2017 11:35 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-4-36 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/1756-3305-4-36 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:113870 |