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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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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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004360050187