Acquired immunity to Trichuris suis infection in pigs

Strong resistance to reinfection developed in pigs as a result of trickle inoculations with Trichuris suis (250 infective eggs twice weekly for 4 weeks). At challenge (4000 eggs) 8 weeks after the last trickle inoculation, we observed a 96% reduction in the mean number of established challenge worms in immunized (TRI/CHA) compared with non-immunized controls (CON/CHA) (74 v. 1753; P = 0.004). Moreover, the total faecal egg excretion was significantly lower in immunized pigs compared with controls (P = 0.0003). The trickle inoculations depressed pig weight gains over the 8-week course of immunization (P = 0.042). It was observed that a small number of pigs developed a weaker level of resistance, reflecting the importance of genetic determinants. The relevance of these data to the population biology of porcine and human whipworm infections is discussed.