Effect of desiccation on the survival of infective Haemonchus contorus larvae under laboratory conditions.
When stored in water at 4 and 20 C, respectively, 42 and 36% of free 3rd-stage, infective larvae of Haemonchus contortus were alive after 256 days. When stored at -95 C, 73% of the free, desiccated larvae died during the 1st half hour and 80% during the 1st half day; thereafter no more died for 255 days, the duration of the experiment. Desiccation protected the larvae against death on storage at temperature below freezing, but it was harmful at temperatures above freezing. H. contortus larvae do not withstand a single episode of desiccation as well as Trichostrongylus colubrformis larvae.
D000818:Animals; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D005615:Freezing; D006189:Haemonchus / Q000502:physiology*; D006813:Humidity; D007814:Larva; D012756:Sheep; D013696:Temperature; D014251:Trichostrongyloidea / Q000502:physiology*