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Abstract
The horn fly, Haematobia irritans (L.), is a blood-sucking livestock ectoparasite responsible for substantial livestock losses. In the present work, the potential use of recombinant hematobin (HTB), a horn fly salivary protein, as an antigen for cattle vaccination was investigated. In this trial, horn fly loads and H. irritans’s blood intake were assessed in vaccinated (n = 4) and control (n = 4) crossbred dark-coated steers, which were naturally infected. The vaccinated group received a 1 ml subcutaneous injection of 100 µg of HTB protein emulsified in 500 µl of Incomplete Freund Adjuvant (AIF) on days 0 and 30. The control group received on the same days 1 ml of distilled water emulsified in 500 µl of AIF. The vaccinated group had significantly more HTB-specific IgG antibodies after the HTB booster and had a lower fly load than the control group (206 ± 23 vs. 285 ± 23 flies per animal, respectively). Blood intake by H. irritans did not differ between groups. In summary, these results suggest that vaccinating cattle with HTB could reduce cattle H. irritans load.
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1 Unidad de Reactivos y Biomodelos de Experimentación, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Gral. Flores 2125, Montevideo, Uruguay ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]); Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]
2 Unidad de Reactivos y Biomodelos de Experimentación, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Gral. Flores 2125, Montevideo, Uruguay ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
3 Laboratorio de Interacciones Moleculares, Facultad de Ciencias, Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay ([email protected])
4 Instituto de Higiene, Cátedra de Inmunología, Av. Alfredo Navarro 3051, 11600 Montevideo, Uruguay ([email protected])
5 Laboratorio de Técnicas Nucleares, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de la República, Lasplaces 1550, Montevideo, Uruguay ([email protected])