Controlled evaluation of fenbendazole as a bovine anthelmintic.

Calves experimentally infected with Haemonchus, Ostertagia, and Cooperia, and to lesser degrees with Trichostrongylus, Oesophagostomum, Nematodirus, and Bunostomum were used in a controlled experiment to record the anthelmintic efficacy of a benzimidazole compound methyl 5-(phenylthio)-2-benzimidazolecarbamate at dosage levels of 3.5, 5, and 7.5 mg/kg bodyweight. With the 3 dosages, reductions of Haemonchus were 96.7, 99.2, and 99.8%; of Ostertagia, 97.2, 97.2, and 99.5%; and of Cooperia, 99.9, 99.9, and 99.9%. Pronounced reductions were also recorded for Trichostrongylus, Nematodirus, Oesophagostomum, Trichuris, and Capillaria, but these populations were too numerically small or too unevenly distributed within the control groups to be given much emphasis. The experimental parasitic populations which developed in the 10 control calves amounted to 91, 763 worms (total).