Haematological and pathological changes in piglet infected with Taenia solium

Porcine cysticercosis is a major public health concern in many developing countries for which pigs are the intermediate hosts of human tapeworm Taenia solium. Cysticercosis in pigs has economic impacts through the condemnation of affected meat as the intermediate stage of the parasite encysted in various tissues or organs on ingestion of Taenia solium eggs. To study the typical changes produced by this parasite, an experiment of induced porcine cysticercosis was conducted in piglets with administration of 1×10⁵Taenia solium viable eggs per os. Gradual increase of lymphocytes and eosinophils and simultaneous decrease of neutrophils were the important haematological findings. Infected pigs slaughtered at 90^th days of post infection reveled development of Cysticercus cellulosae in liver, lungs, spleen and skeletal muscles. More numbers of cysts were detected in liver. Intense immunopathological reaction could be observed around the encysted larvae in liver sections. Histologically, the lesions were of degeneration of parasite surrounding granuloma formation with layers of infiltrating cells. Hydropic degeneration of hepatic parenchyma, dilatation of sinusoids and bile duct proliferation were recorded besides the granulomatous lesions in liver. The typical form of granulomatous reaction initiated by the cysticercus in the visceral organs could be used for designing therapeutic and immunoprophylactic study to combat the disease.