Resumen de Cinética de las poblaciones leucocitarias en vacas lecheras infectadas experimentalmente con Neospora caninum

José B. Serrano Pérez, R. Mur Novales, Irene López Helguera, Laila Darwich Soliva, Oscar Cabezón Ponsoda, Irina García Ispierto, Fernando López Gatius, S. Almeria

• The objective of this work was to study the kinetics of peripheral leukocyte concentrations in Neospora caninum uninfected (n=4), naturally infected (n=3) and experimentally infected (n=6) pregnant heifers. Experimental animals were infected at 110 days of gestation with 107 tachyzoites of the high pathogenic strain Nc-Spain 7 and were sampled for blood and temperature for 6 weeks after infection. Abortion was registered at some point along the infection period in 3 (50%) on the Neospora-experimentally infected heifers. General Linear Model (GLM) repeated measures analysis of variance showed that experimental infection significantly affected temperature, and neutrophil and monocyte counts. Increasing neutrophil counts were observed in experimentally infected heifers on days 28-35 post-infection and significant higher monocyte counts were observed throughout the study period compared to uninfected and naturally infected ones. Increased phagocytes in experimentally infected dams probably are associated to an attempt of the dam to control parasite infection.