Evaluation of Levamisole Against Experimental Infections of Ascaridia, Heterakis, and Capillaria spp. in Chickens

Abstract

SUMMARY Three hundred Vantress/Arbor Acre cockerel and pullet chicks were experimentally inoculated with Ascaridia galli , with Capillaria obsignata , or with A. galli and Heterakis gallinarum . At 28 days after chicks were inoculated, they were treated with various dose levels of levamisole HCl given in ½ the amount of water previously consumed daily. Against A. galli infections, levamisole HCl at dose level of 18 mg./kg. of body weight was 98% effective. The effect of the dose of 12 mg./kg. was erratic; efficacy ranged from 35 to 83% in 40 chicks. Against H. gallinarum , 99% of the worms were removed from chicks created with levamisole HC1 at dose level of 36 mg./kg. of body weight; 86 to 92% of the worm burden was removed when chicks were treated at the dose level of 24 mg./kg. Capillaria obsignata was the most difficult of the 3 species to remove; a dose rate of 36 mg./kg. was required to obtain 95 to 99% anthelmintic effectiveness. A total of 120 Vantress/Arbor Acre cockerel and bullet chicks were experimentally inoculated with a mixed parasitic population (the 3 species). Twenty-eight days after chicks were inoculated, they were created with levamisole HCl (36 mg./kg. of body weight) given in ½ the daily consumption of drinking water. On the basis of numbers of worms recovered from the chicks at necropsy (4 and 5 days after treatement), levamisole HCl removed 100, 97, and 92% of A. galii, H. gallinarum , and C. obsignata , respectively. At the dose rates used, the drug was not unpalatable and did not produce signs of toxicosis.