Class I and class II major histocompatibility complex alleles are associated with faecal egg counts following natural, predominantly Ostertagia circumcincta infection (original) (raw)

Abstract

During a previous investigation an association was found between major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-DRB1 alleles and faecal egg counts following natural infection predominantly involving Ostertagia circumcincta in a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep. To localise the disease-resistance locus we screened the same flock for an MHC class I microsatellite and a newly developed microsatellite for the DY locus located in the class IIb subregion. Some alleles at both additional loci were associated with resistance to infection. Least-squares analysis of variance indicated that in 6-month-old lambs, substitution of the most common alleles by the alleles associated with resistance would result in an 8- and a 218-fold reduction in faecal egg counts for MHC class I and DY, respectively. These results indicate that genes within the MHC genes play a large and significant role in the development of resistance to a widespread, important and natural parasite.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Breeding, Technical University Munich, D-85350 Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany fax: +49.8161.713107 e-mail: buitkamp@pollux.edv.agrar.tu-muenchen.de, , , , , , DE
    J. Buitkamp
  2. Department of Molecular Human Genetics, Ruhr-University, D-44780 Bochum, Germany, , , , , , DE
    Petra Filmether & Joerg T. Epplen
  3. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Bearsden Road, Glasgow G61 1QH, Scotland, UK, , , , , , GB
    Michael J. Stear

Authors

  1. J. Buitkamp
  2. Petra Filmether
  3. Michael J. Stear
  4. Joerg T. Epplen

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Received: 21 April 1996 / Accepted: 11 June 1996

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Buitkamp, J., Filmether, P., Stear, M. et al. Class I and class II major histocompatibility complex alleles are associated with faecal egg counts following natural, predominantly Ostertagia circumcincta infection.Parasitol Res 82, 693–696 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004360050187

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