The anatomy and life-history of Haemonchus contortus (Rud.)

Abstract

In this very long article the author details the results of experimental work commenced in 1911 at the instigation of Sir Arnold THEILER, the Director of Veterinary Research for the Union of South Africa, with the object of obtaining accurate data on which a scientific prophylactic treatment for haemonchosis in sheep could be based. The enormous economic losses caused by this worm are, of course, well known in most parts of the world; hence the author was well justified in devoting such a large amount of patient research to the anatomy, morphology, and cycle of development of the worm. This article, and more especially the parts dealing with the bionomics of the parasite, has been pretty fully extracted in the Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, 1916, Sept. Vol. 29. Part 3. pp. 265-277. It is felt that insufficient justice could be done to this work by an extract of the length usually inserted in this Bulletin. The work represents probably one of the best studies in veterinary helminthology that has yet been published. A very large part of the work is devoted to anatomical and morphological details, but the chapters dealing with the influence of the environment on the eggs and larvae, migration of the mature larvae, and the parasitic life of the larva and adult worm provide very instructive reading.