Interaction of Parasitemia, Haemato-Biochemical Indices and Gross Reproductive Pathology of Rabbit Bucks Infected with Trypanosoma Brucei Brucei

Abstract

This study was designed to determine the interaction between parasitaemia, haemato-biochemical indices and gross reproductive pathologies of 20 adult rabbits (bucks), experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei over 12 weeks. Ten out of the 20 rabbit bucks were inoculated intraperitoneally with 1ml of saline-diluted blood containing 1 x 10⁶ trypanosomes T. brucei brucei, while the remaining ten rabbit bucks were left uninfected. The infected rabbit bucks were monitored for nine weeks, while the others served as control post-infection. Parasitaemia was present at day six in the group A animals with mean values of 2.90±0.31, after which there were fluctuations in the levels of parasitaemia. Peak parasitaemia was attained at day 10 post-infection having a mean value of 3.00±0.33. The overall mean parasitaemia was 1.99 ± 0.25. There was a progressive decrease in PCV with mean values of 40.07 ± 0.49 % and 36.42 ± 1.15 % for the control and infected groups, respectively. Haemoglobin concentrations had mean values of 14.31 ± 1.01^a g/dl and 12.21 ± 0.39^b g/dl for the control and infected groups, respectively, while plasma protein concentrations of infected and control groups had mean values of 6.48 ± 0.08^a gms/100ml and 6.41 ± 0.17^b gms/100ml, respectively. The study revealed a significant decrease (p˂0.05) in haematological values and plasma protein concentrations of rabbit bucks infected with Trypanosoma brucei when compared to the control. It is therefore concluded that the metabolism and health status of rabbits infected with T. brucei brucei is altered which might lead to increased mortality, infertility and or sterility.