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. 1993 Mar 1;34(1):45–52. doi: 10.1186/BF03548222

Tick-Borne Fever in Lambs of Different Ages

S Stuen 16,✉
PMCID: PMC8112486  PMID: 8342464

Abstract

Four groups of lambs aged 1 week, 4 weeks, 1/2 year and 1 year old respectively were inoculated with Ehrlichia phagocytophila infected blood. Clinical signs, temperature reactions, haematological changes and parasitaemia were more moderate in lambs inoculated with E. phagocytophila at the age of 1 week than those recorded in the older animals. The clinical response to tick-borne fever (TBF) appears to be more severe with increasing age of the lambs. The lymphocyte reactivity to mitogens was reduced in the TBF infected lambs, and was most pronounced in lambs in the 3 older age groups.

Keywords: ehrlichia, sheep, lymphocyte transformation

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Acknowledgment

The study was supported by a grant from the Agricultural Research Council of Norway. The author thanks Dr. Charles Press for linguistic correction of the manuscript.

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