The ecology of the free-living stages of Trichostrongylus axei
Authors:
A.P.L. Callinan
Affiliation:
Regional Veterinary Laboratory, Victorian Department of Agriculture, Hamilton, Victoria, 3300, Australia
Abstract:
Callinan A.P.L. 1978. The ecology of the free-living stages of Trichostrongylus axei. International Journal for Parasitology8: 453–456. The development and survival of the free-living stages of Trichostrongylus axei was studied in western Victoria in 1974–1976. For all plots in which development occurred, preinfective larvae (L1-L2) were recovered within 0–5 days, infective larvae (L3) in faeces within 4–28 days and L3 on herbage and soil within 4–21 days. The mean minimum development time to L3 on herbage and soil was 12.3 ± 0.7 days and the mean development time to maximum yield of these was 33.8 ± 7.4 days. A mean of 66.7 ± 6.6% of L3 on herbage and soil were actually found on herbage. Yields of L3 on herbage and soil varied from 0 to 8.9 % of the number of eggs put out on each plot. Yields varied approximately inversely as the mean daily temperatures for the period until maximum yield. No L3 were observed to survive over summer.