Evaluation of fenbendazole for larvacidal effect in experimentally induced Parascaris equorum infections in pony foals.

This research article investigates the effectiveness of Fenbendazole in treating Parascaris equorum infections in pony foals. The results demonstrated that a prolonged treatment of Fenbendazole significantly reduced the number of P equorum larvae in the small intestine of the infected foals.

Methodology

• The study involved fifteen pony foals which were all inoculated with infective Parascaris equorum eggs. The variation in the number of eggs inoculated was 1,500 +/- 298.7.
• The foals were separated into three treatment groups: one group was given a single 10 mg dose of fenbendazole/kg on the 11th day after inoculation, the second group was given a daily 10 mg of fenbendazole/kg from the 11th to 15th day post-inoculation, and the third group was not treated at all, serving as the control group.

Results

• The foals were euthanized on the 25th day post-inoculation and their small intestine, lungs, and liver were examined for the presence of Parascaris equorum larvae.
• Statistical analysis of the results revealed that the foals in the second group, who received the prolonged treatment of Fenbendazole, had significantly fewer P. equorum larvae in their small intestines compared to the other two groups. The average number of P. equorum larvae detected in this group was just 1.4 (with a range of 0 to 6), which was much lower than the foals treated only once on the 11th day (average: 428.2, range: 0 to 777) and the untreated control group (average: 500, range: 284 to 802). The statistical significance of this finding was below 0.05, indicating that the lower mean number of larvae in the second group was not due to random variation or chance.

Conclusion

• The study concluded that fenbendazole, when administered daily from the 11th to 15th day post-inoculation, significantly decreased the number of P. equorum larvae in the small intestines of infected pony foals. Therefore, a prolonged treatment regimen with fenbendazole proved more effective at combating P. equorum infection in pony foals than a single dose treatment.