Immunosuppression in bovine trypanosomiasis: Field studies using foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and clostridial vaccine

Abstract

The immunosuppressive effect of naturally acquired trypanosomiasis was investigated in four groups of zebu cattle maintained in an area of high tsetse fly challenge in Western Ethiopia. Two of the groups remained without chemoprophylaxis against trypanosomiasis and became parasitaemic. The animals of one of these two groups received a polyvalent foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and the cattle of the other group received foot-and-mouth disease vaccine together with a polyvalent clostridial vaccine. The cattle of the remaining two groups, regarded as controls, received fortnightly treatment with Berenil and remained free of trypanosomiasis; of these one group received foot-and-mouth disease vaccine alone and the other both foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and the clostridial vaccine.