Schistosoma bovis:: vaccine effects of a recombinant homologous glutathione S-transferase in sheep

The economic importance of the trematode Schistosoma bovis in African livestock has justified the development of a specific vaccine. Administered preventively to sheep, rSb28GST-the only molecule cloned from S. bovis which has demonstrated vaccine potentialities in goats and cattle-reduced the mean worm burden in vaccinated animals and improved their health status compared with that of non-vaccinated controls. As in goats, but not in bovines, the fecundity of the settled worm pairs was not modified. Therefore, rSb28GST can be proposed as a universal tool for the prevention of clinical disorders engendered by the main schistosome species affecting domestic ruminants in the African continent. (C) 1999 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.