Cause

The adult worms parasitize in the liver bile ducts and gall bladders of sheep. The eggs can be excreted into the digestive tract with the bile and out of the body. After the eggs hatch into miracidia in the water, they burrow into the vertebrae. Inside the snail (intermediate host), cercariae develop into cercariae. The cercariae leave the snail and float everywhere, attaching to aquatic plants and turning into metacercariae. Sheep swallow the aquatic plants containing metacercariae and become infected. Metacercariae enter the digestive tract of sheep, form juvenile worms in the duodenum, escape from the capsule, penetrate the intestinal wall, enter the abdominal cavity, pass through the liver capsule to the liver parenchyma, and then enter the bile duct to develop into adult worms. This disease often occurs during rainy seasons in summer and autumn or when grazing in low-lying areas, and is often endemic.

Symptoms

Acute type: elevated body temperature, food waste, abdominal distension, diarrhea, anemia, and death within a few days. Chronic type: emaciation, anemia, rough coat, pale mucous membranes, edema in the eyelids, mandible, chest, and abdomen. The course of the disease gradually worsens and eventually death.

Prevention and treatment

① Carbon tetrachloride: Adult sheep use 1 to 2 ml once, and half-year-old sheep use 1 ml once. When taken orally, mix it with liquid paraffin (or rapeseed oil) at a ratio of 1:2 and put it in through a rubber tube. For intramuscular injection, mix equal amounts with liquid paraffin and inject into the deep muscles of the neck or buttocks. If there is poisoning, intravenous injection of 10% calcium gluconate or 5% calcium chloride solution, or oral calcium chloride solution can detoxify.

② Nitrochlorophene: 4 mg per kilogram of body weight, taken orally once.

③ Thiobisdichlorophenol: 35 to 75 mg per kilogram of body weight. Dissolve it in water first, then dissolve it in alcohol, and then take it orally.

④Albendazole: 10 to 25 mg per kilogram of body weight, taken orally once.