EFFECTIVENESS OF BROAD SPECTRUM ANTHELMINTICS AGAINST SELECTED STRAINS OF TRICHOSTRONGYLUS COLUBRIFORMIS

SUMMARY A field population of Trichostrongylus colubriformis was divided into 4 lines for exposure to selection in the laboratory. The first line was selected with 50 mg/kg thiabendazole, the second with 4 mg/kg morantel tartrate, the third with 50 mg/kg thiabendazole followed by 4 mg/kg morantel tartrate and the fourth line was not selected for drug resistance. Following at least 9 generations of selection there was no difference in LD50 or LD95 between the unselected and single selected strains of worms. The strain selected by50both thiabendazole and morantel tartrate had a significantly higher LD50 against thiabendazole, morantel tartrate and levamisole than did the other three strains. The single selected strains had LD95's of 172, 21.5 and 2.3 mg/kg for thiabendazole, morantel tartrate and levamisole respectively, compared with corresponding values of 111, 17.3 and 2.4 in the unselected strain and 124, 15.5 and 3.0 in the double selected strain. The estimated efficiency of the recommended dose of each anthelmintic against the unselected field strain was:—thiabendazole (44 mg/kg) 50% efficient, morantel tartrate (8.8 mg/kg) 76% efficient and levamisole (7.0 mg/kg) 99.9% efficient.