THE REPEATABILITY OF HEMATOLOGICAL AND PARASITOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN POLISH WRZOSOWKA HOGGETS NATURALLY INFECTED WITH TRICHOSTRONGYLID NEMATODES

Relationship between faecal egg counts and haematological parameters: PCVs, peripheral eosinophil counts, total white blood cell counts (TWB Cs) and white cells composition in blood of Polish Wrzosowka breed of sheep were estimated in 1995 and 1996. Hoggets were naturally infected with gastrointestinal nematodes; Anthelmintics were not used. Among T eladorsagia circumcincta, Cooperia spp., Chabertia ovina, Nematodirus spp. (mainly N. spathiger) two species: Trichostrongylus spp and Haemo nchus contortus dominated. High repeatability of EPGs, PVCs and periph eral eosinophil counts were observed over two grazing seasons. There w ere no significant changes in TWBCs, in percentage of lymphocytes and neutrophils in blood smears. Marked differences in percentage of eosin ophils in blood smears were confirmed in peripheral eosinophil counts. Additionally, the eosinophil counts in most sampling data correlated negatively with EPGs. The lowest level of haematocrit correlated negat ively with EPGs when the highest percentage of L3 H. contortus larvae were found in the faecal culture. The results reveal that EPGs, PVCs a nd peripheral eosinophil counts could be considered in terms of phenot ypic markers for identification of Wrzosowska sheep with different lev el of acquired immunity to natural trichostrongylid infection.