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A 16-day infection of Dictyocaulus viviparus in two groups of calves was treated with levamisole and fenbendazole respectively. Five days afterwards the calves were reinfected with 4000 larvae and necropsied 21 days later. Although the lungworm burdens of the two groups of calves were reduced by about 70 per cent compared to a control group the clinical signs of dyspnoea, tachypnoea and coughing were indistinguishable from a primary infection. This was due to pulmonary emphysema, oedema and an acute epithelialising pneumonia apparently associated with the death and disintegration of lungworms in situ, the result of an incompletely developed immune response. The results are compared with those obtained with the lungworm vaccine. It was concluded that the outcome of any system of "control" which depends on drug therapy and reinfection is unpredictable and that vaccination offers the only effective method of prophylaxis.

The interaction of the morantel sustained release bolus with the development of immunity in calves vaccinated with two doses of gamma irradiated (40 Kr) Dictyocaulus viviparus larvae was investigated under laboratory conditions. A total of 37 helminth-naive calves were used. Eight calves were used in the first part of the study to test the efficacy of a larval vaccine prepared by using gamma rays delivered from a cobalt source. In the second part of the study, four groups of four groups of four calves each were vaccinated and of these, all the animals in two groups each received a bolus. The remaining three groups (two groups of four and one group of five calves each) remained nonvaccinated with each animal in one group receiving a bolus. All the calves were challenged with approximately 2000 lungworm larvae four months postvaccination. In order to simulate possible field conditions, two of the vaccinated groups and two of the nonvaccinated groups were given a trickle infection of 800 lungworm larvae over a four-week period, three months prior to challenge. Based on a comparison of clinical signs, pathology and lungworm burdens at necropsy, the vaccination of the calves conferred a significant degree of protection (P less than 0.001) to a subsequent challenge compared with controls. The introduction of a morantel sustained release bolus and/or a trickle infection had no effect on the high degree of protection engendered by the vaccination. Nonvaccinated calves given a trickle infection, with or without a bolus, were also highly immune to challenge.