Eugene T. Lyons, PhD
Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center
Department of Veterinary Science
University of Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0099
Research in the Classical Parasitology section of the Department of Veterinary Science
continues the direction started over 50 years ago. That is, to do research on the
control and transmission on internal parasites of domestic animals - especially
horses.
Virtually all drugs on the market for removing nematodes, tapeworms, and insects
(bots) were tested here as independent evaluators of the efficacy of these compounds
on internal parasites of horses. Our research, as pioneers of discovery of drug
resistant parasites in horses (and sheep), has been orientated towards multi-year
study of the equine small strongyles which are resistant to most of the commercially
available parasiticides.
Transmission of equine parasites also is an important aspect of our research. The
purposes of these studies are to follow the changes of prevalence due to use of
parasiticides, to determine the treatment regimen necessary to control parasites,
and to determine whether the compounds are as efficacious as they were when they
first came on the market.