The work reported in this paper is the result of a field study on the response to chemptherapy of cattle naturally infected with Fasci ola gigantica in Uganda. The selected cattle regained more weight 30 weeks after treatment. On slaughter their livers were found to be free of fibrosis and flukes, and therefore were passed as fit for human consumption.
It was established that if cattle suffering from fascioliasis were treated once a year, they gained more weight but the weigh gained was not statistically significant. It was shown that if cattle were treated twice a year their weight gain was statistically significant over the untreated control, and they gained even more weight if treated three times a year. In the once a year treatment groups, Hexachloro phene treated group produced the highest weight gains and Oxyclo zanide treated group showed the least gain. In twice a year treat ment groups, Oxyclozanide treated group was the best while Rafox anide treated group had the least gain. In three times a year treat ment groups, Nnitroxynil treated group was the best followed closely by Hexachlorophene treated group. On the whole however, all the drug groups produced highest weight gains when used three times a year.
Fluke burden in the cattle used for the drug trial was slight and infection chronic. There ware no obvious pathological lesions on the carcasses of infected animals which could be attributed to fascioliasis alone. By visual inspection and with scoring system it was shown that treated cattle had better carcasses than the untreated infected cattle.