Evaluation of fenbendazole as an extended anthelmintic treatment regimen for swine

Fenbendazole was given in the feed to swine at a cumulative dosage of 9 mg/kg of body weight over a period of 3, 6, and 12 days to compare efficacy. Four treatment groups of ten 2- to 3-month-old pigs each, with a mean of 15 kg of body weight per group, received 3 mg of fenbendazole/kg/day for 3 days, 1.5 mg/kg/day for 6 days, 0.75 mg/kg/day for 12 days, and no medication. Medicated feed was scheduled so that all treated pigs reached the last day of treatment on the same day, thus making the time between the last treatment and necropsy equal for all groups. Ascaris suum and Trichuris suis were the target species, their presence before treatment being determined by fecal egg counts and at necropsy by worm counts. At necropsy, 9 control pigs were infected with A suum (mean of 18.0 worms/pig), and all control pigs had T suis infection (mean of 36.5 worms/pig). All 3 treatment schedules were 100% effective in removal of A suum; and for T suis, the 3-day regimen was 100% effective, the 6-day regimen, 99.2%, and the 12-day regimen, 91.0%.