Effectiveness of the Experimental Fosfatriclaben in Comparison with Two Commercial Fasciolicides in Cattle

The aim of the present study was to compare the fasciolicidal efficacy in cattle of an experimental water-soluble compound, named fosfatriclaben, a prodrug of triclabendazole, with two commercial fasciolicides. For this, twenty-four cross mixed milking cows, aged between 1 to 3 years, naturally infected with Fasciola hepatica, were used. To apply the treatment, animals were divided into 4 groups of 6 animals each being ranked according to their fecal fluke-egg count from the highest to the lowest number of eggs. The compounds were administered in the groups with a single dose. Group 1 (G1) was treated with 6 mg/kg/IM of fosfatriclaben, G2 was treated with triclabendazole at 12 mg/kg/PO; G3 was treated with 5% closantel at 10 mg/kg/SC and G4 was administered with 5 mL/IM of deionized water and served as untreated control. Fecal samples were analyzed on days—8, 0 (treatment day), 7, 14, 21 and 28 to count the number of fasciola eggs before and after the treatment using the sedimentation test. The efficacy was assessed as the percentage of fluke-egg reduction on treated groups relative to the untreated control. The resulting data were analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test, using the statistical IBM SPSS 24.0 (2016) program. Results indicated a fluke-egg reduction of 100% for fosfatriclaben along the study; triclabendazole showed an efficacy of 99.7% - 100% from day 7 to day 28. In the case of closantel, values from 98.8% to 99.6% were recorded from day 7 to day 28. No statistical differences between treatments were observed (P < 0.05). It was concluded that the experimental fosfatriclaben administered at 6 mg/kg/IM to naturally infected cattle exerted a fasciolicidal efficacy similar to the drugs of choice for the treatment of fasciolosis (triclabendazole) when administered at 12 mg/kg/ PO, and closantel injected at 10 mg/kg/SC.