Persistence of the efficacy of doramectin against Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora in cattle.

The persistence of the efficacy of doramectin injectable against Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora was evaluated in two studies in calves. In both, the calves were allocated to six groups of six. Calves in the first control group (C1) and first treated group (T1) received a daily infection of 200 L3 of O ostertagi and 200 L3 of C oncophora; the calves in groups C2 and T2 received a daily infection of 1000 L3 of each species, and groups C3 and T3 received 10,000 L3 of each species per day. The calves in the three treated groups each received 0.2 mg/kg doramectin injectable on day 0. In the first study, the calves were infected for 21 days with Cooperia and for 28 days with Ostertagia, and they were slaughtered on day 33. In the second study, the calves were infected for 21 days with both species, the infections with Cooperia and Ostertagia starting from eight and 15 days, respectively, after the treatment, and the animals were slaughtered on day 40. The calculation of the persistence of the activity of doramectin was based on its efficacy against the different developmental and adult stages of the two parasites. The data from both studies indicated that the efficacy of doramectin against Ostertagia persisted for at least five weeks, but no conclusions could be drawn about the effect of the size of the infective doses on the persistence of the activity. In contrast, the Cooperia worm counts from the second study suggested that the efficacy of doramectin against Cooperia persisted for at least four weeks when the calves were exposed to a low or moderate infection level, whereas at the highest infection level it persisted for between three and four weeks.