Effects of Ostertagia ostertagi infection on secretion of metabolic hormones in calves.

Effects of Ostertagia ostertagi infection on secretion of insulin, pancreatic glucagon, cortisol, gastrin, and pepsinogen were studied in calves inoculated with 100,000 (group 1) or 10,000 (group 2) O ostertagi infective larvae weekly for 14 weeks. Plasma insulin concentrations in both inoculated groups were lower than those in a non-infected (group 3) control group. The differences between group 1 and group 3 were significant (P < 0.05) at 2 and 12 weeks after initial inoculation. Plasma pancreatic glucagon and cortisol concentrations of groups 1 and 2 did not differ significantly from those of the control group, although plasma pancreatic glucagon concentration was consistently lower in group-1 calves from 4 weeks to end of the study. Plasma pepsinogen and serum gastrin concentrations also increased significantly (P < 0.05) in both groups that received inoculations. We concluded that decreased plasma insulin concentrations are contributory to changes in postabsorptive protein metabolism, and that serum gastrin concentrations are more representative of the pathologic changes in the abomasum than are plasma pepsinogen concentrations.