Use of bait containing triclabendazole to treat Fascioloides magna infections in free ranging white-tailed deer.

Triclabendazole-medicated corn bait was given to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on the Welder Wildlife Refuge, Sinton, Texas (USA), at a dose of 11 mg/kg body weight per deer per day for seven days, for control of Fascioloides magna. Medicated bait was offered for one week each during the winters of 1987, 1988, and 1989. Deer collected from treated areas, from baited control and from unbaited control areas were examined before the start of the study in 1987, and four weeks after the end of the baiting period in each of three years. Prior to the study, prevalence of fluke infection was 68%. After treatment with triclabendazole medicated corn, 13 (56%) of 23 deer collected were infected with flukes of which 15% had live parasites; this was evidence for therapeutic treatment. Of the deer collected in the baited and unbaited control areas, 63% and 80%, respectively, were infected only with live flukes. Prevalence of live flukes in deer was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the treatment pasture than in the baited or unbaited control areas in each of the three years. Efficacy of the baiting system over the three years was 63% when comparing the treatment area and the baited control area.