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Equine Immunity To Cyathostome Infections, Marie Alexandra Baudena

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

To study the protective responses of cyathostome-infected ponies, two challenges were performed employing animals with different histories of exposure to these parasites. The hypothesis developed and to be tested in these experiments was that ponies that had longer exposure to cyathostome contaminated pastures would express acquired resistance to infection. The assumption behind this hypothesis was that helminth-naïve ponies infected with cyathostomes would eliminate the infection using only innate immune responses. Whereas previously exposed ponies would eliminate the infection with acquired immune responses, and these would be more effective in ponies with longer exposure to cyathostomes. Thus, helminth-naïve animals would acquire …