Identification of immunodominant polypeptides of infective larva of Haemonchus contortus

Abstract

Larval stage of Haemonchus contortus is supposed to be the target to which the naturally induced host immunity is directed. During the present study polypeptides ranging between 17 and 170 kDa and above were fractionated by SDS- PAGE in larval somatic extract of L3 larva, and 3 polypeptides of 60,120 and 170 kDa were found immunodominant in western blotting with prepatent sera from experimentally infected sheep. It seems that the polypeptides may be enzymes including proteases, which may further be exploited for immunoprophylaxis against haemonchosis in young animals.