Influence of the gestational stage on the clinical course, lesional development and parasite distribution in experimental ovine neosporosis

Table 1 Experimental design

Group	Number of pregnant ewes	Number of foetuses/lambs	Days of gestation at the time of inoculation	Inoculum (IV)	Animal euthanasia ^a
G1	6	11	40	Nc-Spain7 10⁶ tachyzoites	Yes
G2	7	12	90	Nc-Spain7 10⁶ tachyzoites	Yes
G3	7	9	120	Nc-Spain7 10⁶ tachyzoites	Yes
G4	6	9	40-90-120^b	PBS	Yes^b
G5	3	4	40-90-120^c	PBS	No^c

IV: intravenous route.
^aAnimals were culled when fœtal death was detected or immediately after parturition.
^bIn G4, 2 ewes correspond to each period of inoculation (40, 90 and 120), and were culled at the average day of abortion of each group (i.e. 20 dpi for G1 and 40 dpi for G2) or at parturition (for G3).
^cIn G5, 1 ewe corresponds to each period of inoculation (40, 90 and 120). All three ewes gave birth to healthy lambs and were kept alive until the end of the experiment.

ISSN: 1297-9716