Efficacy of albendazole and paromomycin treatments against natural Giardia spp. infection in calves

The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of albendazole and paromomycine treatments against natural Giardia spp. infection in calves. The calves were divided in two groups of six animals each with similar parasitic loads of Giardiaspp. cysts. Albendazole (20 mg/kg) and paromomycin (50 mg/kg) were administrated orally to group A and group P, respectively, for three consecutive days. The efficiacies of drugs evaluated by analyzing the reduction in cyst excretion in native fecal examinations on days 0, 3, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 28. In addition, percentages of reduction for days 3, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 28 according to day 0 were evaluated. The geometric mean of fecal cyst excretion in both groups started to decrease from the 3rd day, in paromomycin group the decrease continued steadily throughout the examination days starting from the 3rd day, despite that in the albendazole group the cyst amount increased in the 7th day and then decreased again. Cyst excretion reached zero in all animals at the 21st and 28th days in group P and group A, respectively. The percentage of reduction started with a high rate of 47.72% on the third day and reached 100% on the 21st day in the paromomycin group. In the albendazole group, the percentage of reduction started with a rate of 35.29% on the third day and reached 100% on the 28th day. As a result, paromomycin was found to be more effective compared to albendazole in terms of both the regularity of the mean cyst reduction and the time it takes for the cyst excretion to reach zero.