Abstract

Cerebral Coenurosis is a commonly occurring parasitic disease of ruminants caused by Coenurus cerebralis, the larval stage of Taenia multiceps, which lives in the small intestine of dogs. Therapy essentially chirurgical, is too expansive for the farmers that usually let the sheep die. For these reasons we have decided to set up a recombinant vaccine and make a field trial of it in endemic districts of northern Sardinia. Two hundred and eight lambs were vaccinated with two recombinant proteins named Tm16 and Tm18, in six different sheep farms while 424 animals were leaved unvaccinated as controls. After more than 3 years from vaccination, 33 lambs (n° 32 controls and one vaccinated), died for chronic Coenurosis. Skulls were opened and cysts were isolated for morphological and biomolecular studies. These results allow us to give a positive response for this first field trial, even if further investigations are required to standardize the vaccine.

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