Prospects for vaccines against gastrointestinal helminth parasites of ruminants

Abstract

Vaccines for several of the more important species of ruminant helminth are being developed, spurred on by the increasing frequency of anthelmintic resistant strains of worms. Several highly protective antigens have been identified, but so far highly protective recombinant versions of these have only been produced for Taenia ovis. Of the gut helminths, Haemonchus and Fasciola are likely to be the first candidates for defined antigen vaccines. The approaches which have been used to identify the various antigens and likely strategies for their use are discussed.