Clinical pathology of Schistosoma bovis infection in goats

The clinical pathology of Schistosoma bovis infection in West African Dwarf goats was studied for 14 weeks following experimental infection. The length of the prepatent period was six weeks and the size of the egg output reached a maximum around eight to 10 weeks after which it diminished markedly. Heavily infected animals showed reduced serum albumin, haemoglobin and packed cell volume values from week 6 to 8 onwards, but eosinophilia was not a striking feature. Liver lesions were moderate in that only 10 to 15 per cent of the total tissue egg load was confined to the liver, and neither gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase levels nor bromsulphalein clearance rates were significantly changed. However, the infected animals had markedly reduced growth rates. The results obtained in the present study are compared with those from a similar study in another breed of goats using another strain of S bovis.