Does in Vitro and in Vivo Exposure To Medicinal Herbs Cause Structural Cuticular Changes in Haemonchus Contortus ?

The health and production of small ruminants in constantly menaced by parasitic infections, especially those caused by the blood-sucking gastrointestinal nematode . The aim of this study was to assess the structural cuticular changes in adult induced by the use of extracts from local medicinal plants and to examine their ovicidal activity. Previous studies have confirmed the beneficial effect of herbal mixtures in preventing haemonchosis in lambs by lowering fecal egg production and improving immunocompetence. We exposed adult to Herbmix (a mixture of medicinal plants) under and conditions for observation by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For the observations, adult worms were isolated from the abomasa of experimentally infected lambs from a Herbmix group and a control group. Surface structure did not differ significantly between the exposed and control groups. The ovicidal activity of an aqueous Herbmix extract was assessed , establishing the inhibition of hatching with an ED of 6.52 mg/mL. Adult worms for examination were isolated from experimentally infected lambs and incubated in Herbmix aqueous extracts for 24 h. SEM observations indicated that none of the worms had prominent ultrastructural changes on their cuticles. This study suggests that previously demonstrated antiparasitic effects of medicinal plants did not negatively affect adult parasites by damaging their external structures.