Short communicationAnthelmintic effects of forage chicory (Cichorium intybus) against free-living and parasitic stages of Cooperia oncophora
Graphical abstract
Introduction
In the search for novel control strategies of livestock nematodes in a context of expanding parasite drug-resistance, a promising and increasingly explored approach is the inclusion of forages with anthelmintic activity in animal diets (Sandoval-Castro et al., 2012, Hoste et al., 2015). One bioactive forage under investigation is chicory (Cichorium intybus L., Asteraceae), well known for its content of several biologically active compounds, most notably the sesquiterpene lactones (SL) (Rees and Harborne, 1985, Simonsen et al., 2013). In vivo, chicory feeding has been shown to reduce the burdens of abomasal nematodes in sheep (Scales et al., 1995, Tzamaloukas et al., 2005). Recently, we reported a potent anti-parasitic activity of chicory-based diets against the abomasal cattle nematode Ostertagia ostertagi, the most pathogenic bovine parasite in temperate regions (Peña-Espinoza et al., 2016). However, in the same study, the small intestinal nematode Cooperia oncophora was not affected by dietary chicory. It is unclear whether this lack of effect is due to an inherent inactivity of chicory towards C. oncophora, or if other factors such as the host digestive physiology may affect the availability and/or activity of phytochemicals along the gastrointestinal tract, as recently substantiated for condensed tannins in cattle (Desrues et al., 2017). Previously, we reported that forage chicory extracts have direct and dose-dependent activity against O. ostertagi in vitro (Peña-Espinoza et al., 2015), but corresponding evidence with C. oncophora or other small intestinal nematodes of ruminants is absent. Consequently, the objective of the present study was to investigate whether forage chicory can exert direct in vitro anthelmintic effects against free-living and parasitic stages of C. oncophora.
Section snippets
Plant material and extraction procedure
Forage chicory extracts were prepared with chicory leaves collected from an organic dairy farm in Årre, Denmark (55°32′50″N, 8°35′49″E) in early December 2012. Chicory leaves were hand-picked from a permanent pasture sown in spring 2010 containing forage chicory (cultivar [cv.] Spadona; <10% dry matter in the field), ryegrass and white clover. At collection, all chicory plants were at the vegetative stage. Chicory leaves were stored at −20 °C in the dark until extraction. Extracts were prepared
Results and discussion
In the EHA, the mean egg hatching rate in negative control wells after 48 h was 90%. In contrast, the chicory extract displayed a marked and dose-dependent inhibition of egg hatching (Fig. 1a), with 95% of eggs unhatched at the highest chicory concentration and an EC50 = 619 (95% CI: 530–722) μg dry extract/mL (R2 = 0.97). In addition, considerable damage was observed in dead L1 inside unhatched eggs incubated with chicory, in comparison with unexposed eggs (Fig. 1b–d). Our results showed a higher
Conflicts of interest statement
The authors declare that they have none conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
The EMIDA ERA-NET project ‘Coping with anthelmintic resistance in ruminants’ (CARES; 3405-11-0430/32), CONICYT Chile (Becas Chile Scholarship and FONDECYT Postdoctorado #3170875) and the Danish Council for Independent Research (project no. DFF–6111-00394) are acknowledged for financial support.
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2021, International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug ResistanceCitation Excerpt :The identification of the active compounds will now for the first time make it possible for plant breeders to selectively breed for cultivars with a high content of the active SL and thus create a cultivar designed for parasite treatment. Whilst our current results were obtained against larval stages, we have previously shown that SL-rich chicory extracts also have strong activity against adult worms from O. ostertagi and C. oncophora (ex situ) suggesting that the SL may broadly target different life-cycle stages (Peña-Espinoza et al., 2015, 2017). Importantly, we have demonstrated that the activity of chicory appears to be conserved across multiple important clades of nematodes that infect ruminants and pigs, as well as humans.