Effect of ensilation of potato on viability of Taenia hydatigena eggs.

A Taenia hydatigena model was used to assess the effect 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days of ensilation of minced potato on viability of tapeworm eggs. For infection of lambs, 2,000 T. hydatigena eggs were ensiled for 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days in minced potato at 22°C and fed to recently weaned lambs (29.9±0.76 kg). At slaughter, no cysticerci were recovered from lambs infected with eggs ensiled for 28 days while a mean of 5.0±5.0 cysticerci (0.25% of the initial egg dose) were recovered from lambs infected with eggs ensiled for 21 days. For lambs fed eggs ensiled for 0 days (control), 359.3±55.6 cysticerci were recovered (18.0% of the initial egg dose). Regression analysis revealed that a 99.9% reduction in viability was attained after 18.59 days of ensilation.