A STUDY ON PLASMA FIBRINOGEN AND HAPTOGLOBIN IN LAMBS WITH EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED HAEMONCHUS CONTORTUS INFECTION

The present study aims to evaluate the changes in concentrations of some acute phase proteins during Haemonchus contortus infection in lambs. This experiment was performed using 12 three-month-old healthy lambs, randomly allocated into 2 equal groups: G1 (uninfected control animals) and G2 (lambs infected with H. contortus). Each lamb of G2 group was orally inoculated with 4000 infective third stage larvae (L3) of H. contortus by placing a probe. Blood samples were collected on post infection days zero, 4, 7, 11, 14, 21, 28 and 32. After sampling, the blood was centrifuged, and the separated plasma was used for the quantitative determination of haptoglobin (Hp) and fibrinogen (Fb). The most pronounced changes occurred in Hp levels, which increased and attained the highest values on post infection days 4, 7, and 11. A peak concentration occurred on post infection day 7 when Hp increased by 45.96% vs the initial level, and by 44.08% vs the control level on the same day. There were no significant changes in Fb concentrations throughout the study.