The effect of cysticercosis invasion on the cellular immunity of rabbits

One of the most important indicators characterizing the state of animal health is leukogram and cellular immunity. The goal of the work was to establish the effect of cysticercosis invasion on the leukoformula and cellular immunity of rabbits. Rabbits were divided into two groups after visual identification of the presence of the larval cysts: healthy (control) and diseased (experimental). The number of lymphocytes was determined by the method of spontaneous rosetting with sheep erythrocytes. The intensity of invasion in experimental animals ranged from 2 to 10 of the larval cysts. The number of leukocytes in infected animals was higher by 9.64 %, (6.37± 0.25 G/l), than in healthy rabbits (5.81±0.31 G/l). We observed eosinophilia in the leukoformul of diseased rabbits (5.71±0.36 %, p<0.01, compared with the control in 4.08±0.50 %), and a high number of stab neutrophils by 1.55 times (p<0.01), which indicates inflammatory processes as a result of parasitizing the pathogen Cysticercus pisiformis. We found that in the blood of infected animals, the percentage of total T-lymphocytes was significantly higher by 4.07 % (p<0.01) and reached 59.81±0.87 % compared with the control (55.74±1.14 %). B-lymphocytes were high in experimental rabbits, both in percentage (36.10 ± 0.96% against 23.52±1.52 %, p<0.001) and in in absolute value (1.35±0.07 G/l against 0.86±0.09 G/l, p<0.001), that is, 1.53 times and 1.57 times, respectively. The number of T-helper cells in rabbits infected with cysticercosis was greater by 1.42 times (p<0.001) compared with healthy ones. Similar changes in these cells were in percentage terms, T-helper were higher by 13.56 % (p<0.001) than in healthy rabbits. We recorded a low rate of both absolute and percentage number of T-suppressors in the blood of the experimental animals against control. Their values respectively amounted to 0.42±0.04 G/l against 0.67±0.05 G/l (p<0.001) and 11.29±0.96% against 19.17±0.91% (p<0.001). The number of O-lymphocytes in rabbits infected was significantly low by 4.46 times (p<0.001), and the percentage – by 5.06 times (p<0.001) than in healthy ones. Thus, such quantitative changes in immune cells indicate activation of the immune system in response to invasion.