Relationships between Oesophagostomum columbianum infection and the nutritional status of sheep. II. Haematological changes

Abstract

Young sheep maintained on a low protein ration showed significant reductions in haemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume, and number of circulating erythrocytes following infection with 1500 Oesophagostomum columbianum larvae. Similar infections of sheep maintained on a high protein ration had no significant effect on the various haematological values.

The development of anaemia in the inadequately fed sheep was more severe in those animals which had been infected with five consecutive daily doses of 300 larvae than in those which had received 1500 larvae in a single dose.

Little change was apparent throughout the experiment in the values for the mean corpuscular values of volume, haemoglobin, and haemoglobin concentration.