Use of immunologic techniques to detect chemotherapeutic success in infections with Fasciola hepatica. I. Rabbit infections.

Rabbits infected with Fasciola hepatica develop precipitins to adult worm heomogenates, as observed by Ouchterlony double immunodiffusion (ID) and counterelectrophoresis (CEP). When they are successfully treated with a fasciolicidal drug such as rafoxanide at 5, 6, or 11 weeks of infection their precipitins drop dramatically by 2 weeks post-treatment, they are virtually negative by 4 weeks, and have no detectable precipitins by 5 or 6 weeks post-treatment. The results suggest that ID or CEP can be utilized to show chemotherapeutic success in rabbits infected with F. hepatica and warrant further studies as to their possible application in human fascioliasis.