Original Research

Blocking Babesia bovis vaccine reactions of dairy cattle in milk

Michael P. Combrink, Graham Carr, Ben J. Mans, Frances Marais
Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research | Vol 79, No 1 | a491 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ojvr.v79i1.491 | © 2012 Michael P. Combrink, Graham Carr, Ben J. Mans, Frances Marais | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 18 June 2012 | Published: 06 December 2012

About the author(s)

Michael P. Combrink, Parasites, Vectors and Vector-borne Diseases Programme, ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South Africa
Graham Carr, Howick Veterinary Clinic, Howick, South Africa
Ben J. Mans, Parasites, Vectors and Vector-borne Diseases Programme, ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South Africa
Frances Marais, Parasites, Vectors and Vector-borne Diseases Programme, ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South Africa

Abstract

The use of 1.16 mg/kg (one third) of the recommended dose of diminazene aceturate, administered indiscriminately to cattle on day seven of the unfrozen Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina bivalent live blood vaccine reaction, was an infection and block treatment method of immunisation used successfully with no known adverse effect on the parasites or the development of protective immunity. Continuing with this practice after replacement of the unfrozen vaccine with deep-frozen monovalent B. bovis and B. bigemina live blood vaccines resulted in reports of vaccine failure. Laboratory investigation indicated the harmful effect of block treatment in preventing the development of durable immunity against B. bigemina as opposed to the much lesser effect it had on B. bovis. Consequently the practice was no longer recommended. A B. bovis vaccination attempt aimed at controlling the disease of dairy cows in milk (n = 30) resulted in 20% fatalities during the expected vaccine reaction period. The practice of block treating B. bovis was therefore reinvestigated, this time in a field trial using dairy cattle in milk (n = 11). Using 0.88 mg/kg (one quarter) of the recommended dose of diminazene administered on day 12 of the B. bovis vaccine reaction resulted in only two animals (n = 5) testing ≥ 1/80 positive with the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) although parasites could be demonstrated in three. In the untreated control group, by contrast, five of the vaccinated animals (n = 6) tested ≥ 1/80 positive with IFAT and parasites could be demonstrated in all. The unsatisfactory outcome obtained in this study, combined with that of the earlier investigation, indicated that there are more factors that influence successful vaccination than previously considered. It is therefore concluded that block treatment of the live frozen South African cattle babesiosis vaccines reactions is not recommended.

Keywords

Babesia bovis; Babesia bigemina; blood vaccine; diminazene; dairy cattle

Metrics

Total abstract views: 4276
Total article views: 10011

 

Crossref Citations

1. Efficacy of South African Babesia bovis vaccine against field isolates
P.C. Troskie, A.A. Latif, B.J. Mans, M.P. Combrink
Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases  vol: 8  issue: 4  first page: 671  year: 2017  
doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2017.04.014