Progressive weight gain, faecal egg counts, packed cell volume, percent eosinophils in blood, serum antibody and serum levels of glutamate dehydrogenase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase were recorded in seven swamp buffalo (Bubalis bubalis), 7 Ongole (Bos indicus) and four Bali calves (Bos sundiacus) which were infected orally with 15 metacercariae of Fasciola gigantica twice weekly for 32 weeks. Similar observations were made on four buffalo, 4 Ongole calves and 3 Bali calves maintained fluke-free as controls. Flukes were counted at slaughter 36 weeks after initial infection. Mean daily weight gains of infected Bali (228 +/- 100 (SD) g/day) and infected Ongole calves (328 +/- 57 (SD) g/day) were lower (p = 0.026 and 0.067, respectively) than those of control calves (405 +/- 107 (SD) g/day), but infected buffalo calves (379 +/- 78 (SD) g/day) had similar weight gains to those of the controls (p = 0.57). Throughout the trial, faecal Fasciola egg counts in buffaloes were about one-fifth of counts of Ongole calves, and counts in Bali calves were intermediate. Ongole calves had three times the number of flukes at slaughter in their liver compared to buffalo and Bali calves, which had similar numbers. However, there was evidence that Bali calves had acquired a degree of resistance about 24 weeks after infection commenced and may have lost adult flukes as a consequence.

Dissections of female blackflies collected while attacking a cow at the Omyojin Farm, Iwate, northern Japan showed that 4.4% of 1,104 Simulium daisense, 0.8%

No abstract

The male, pupa and larva of Simulium (Gomphostilbia) novemarticulatum Takaoka and Davies, 1995 are described morphologically on the basis of specimens collected from Peninsular Malaysia (type country) and southern Thailand. This species is very similar to S. (G.) charlesi Takaoka, 2008 from Sarawak but readily distinguished in the male by the slender style, in the pupa by the ventral paired filaments of the gill of almost the same size, and in the larva by the bifid dark thick setae on the dorsal and dorsolateral surfaces of abdominal segments 5ῌ8. The di#erence between S. (G.) novemarticulatum and S. (G.) charlesi, as well as the identification of Thai specimens as S. (G.) novemarticulatum, is confirmed molecularly.