Vet World   Vol.13   September-2020  Article-15

Individual and combined anti-trypanosomal effects of arteether and diminazene aceturate in the treatment of experimental Trypanosoma brucei brucei infection in rats

Background and Aim: Trypanosomosis is a vital protozoan disease of man and animals with devastating consequences in the tropical parts of the world, necessitating the investigation of the effects of diminazene aceturate (DA) and arteether (AR) on Trypanosoma brucei brucei experimental infection in rats.

Materials and Methods: We used a total of 98 rats, which were divided into 14 groups (A-N) of seven rats each over 36 days after acclimatizing them. We administered 1×106 trypanosomes to the infected groups (B-N) with Group A as the unexposed control rats. Groups C-F became the infected and treated rats with 3.5 mg/kg, 7.0 mg/kg, 10.5 mg/kg, and 14.0 mg/kg of DA while Groups G-J became the infected and treated rats with 0.01 ml/kg, 0.02 ml/kg, 0.03 ml/kg, and 0.04 ml/kg of AR. Groups K-N became infected and treated rats with DA and AR combinations at similar doses.

Results: Parasitemia suppression occurred in Groups G-J only but became cleared in Groups C-F and K-N. Survival time varied significantly (p<0.05) between Group B and the other infected groups. We recorded anemia in all the infected rats while significant (p<0.05) splenomegaly and hepatomegaly occurred in Groups G-J only compared to the other groups.

Conclusion: AR did not inhibit or potentiate the anti-trypanosomal efficacy of DA, and therefore, it is comparatively less effective in combating T. brucei infection at the present doses and treatment regimen. Keywords: albino rats, arteether, clinicopathology, diminazene aceturate, Trypanosoma brucei brucei.

Keywords: albino rats, arteether, clinicopathology, diminazene aceturate, Trypanosoma brucei brucei.

How to cite this article: Egbe-Nwiyi TN, Abalaka SE, Sani NA, Tenuche OZ, Idoko IS (2020) Individual and combined anti-trypanosomal effects of arteether and diminazene aceturate in the treatment of experimental Trypanosoma brucei brucei infection in rats, Veterinary World, 13(9): 1858-1862.

Received: 17-04-2020  Accepted: 20-07-2020     Published online: 11-09-2020

Corresponding author: Samson Eneojo Abalaka   E-mail: samson.abalaka@uniabuja.edu.ng

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.1858-1862

Copyright: Egbe-Nwiyi, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.