ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) · India · NTA for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersHost-parasite relationships and the flukes, tapeworms and roundworms of domestic animals: their life cycles, damage, diagnosis and control, and the growing problem of anthelmintic resistance.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF core group 06; ICAR AIEEA-PG 13 (Parasitology); PRC 10%; Nepal NLEV 6; China preventive paper parasitology 25
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — core group 06
Deeper biology: immune evasion, hypobiosis, overdispersion, molecular mechanisms of anthelmintic resistance (beta-tubulin codons), Wolbachia, FECRT design and WAAVP guidelines, vaccines against helminths.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of General Veterinary Parasitology & Helminthology. Difficulty: 2 easy, 12 medium, 19 hard.
| Anthelmintic resistance | 7 | |
| Parasite life cycles | 4 | |
| Host-parasite relationships | 3 | |
| Pathogenesis of helminth infections | 3 | |
| Trematodes: Fasciola | 2 | |
| Amphistomes | 2 | |
| Schistosomes | 2 | |
| Cestodes: Taenia and Echinococcus | 2 | |
| Dirofilaria | 2 | |
| Diagnosis and control of helminths | 2 | |
| Taxonomy of parasites | 1 | |
| Moniezia | 1 | |
| Nematodes: Haemonchus | 1 | |
| Toxocara and Ancylostoma | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A ram line is selected so that, under the same challenge, its lambs have lower faecal egg counts but the same weight gain as controls. The trait selected is best called:
C. Resistance
Resistance is the host's ability to limit parasite establishment or egg output, usually measured by faecal egg count. Resilience would be maintaining production despite infection; here production is unchanged and egg output fell, so the change is in resistance.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
'Black disease' in sheep with liver fluke is caused by:
C. Clostridium novyi type B
Migrating flukes create anaerobic necrotic foci where C. novyi type B spores germinate, causing infectious necrotic hepatitis. C. perfringens type D causes enterotoxaemia; C. chauvoei causes blackleg (the name 'black' misleads); C. haemolyticum causes bacillary haemoglobinuria in cattle.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
The snail intermediate host of Schistosoma spindale and S. nasale in South Asia is:
A. Indoplanorbis exustus
Indoplanorbis exustus, a planorbid, transmits S. spindale, S. nasale and S. indicum. Oncomelania transmits S. japonicum in East Asia; lymnaeids transmit Fasciola.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Interproglottidal glands confined to a short central band on each segment identify:
C. Moniezia benedeni
In M. benedeni the glands form a narrow central row; in M. expansa they extend across the full width of the segment. M. benedeni eggs are roughly quadrangular, M. expansa roughly triangular.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Why do the sporangia of the fungus Pilobolus matter in the epidemiology of Dictyocaulus viviparus?
C. They discharge lungworm larvae metres away from the dung pat onto pasture
L3 migrate onto Pilobolus sporangia on dung and are fired onto surrounding herbage. By contrast, Duddingtonia flagrans is the fungus that traps and kills larvae.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Hypobiosis in gastrointestinal nematodes refers to:
B. Arrested development of early fourth-stage larvae in the host
Hypobiosis is a pause in development inside the host, usually as early L4, timed to avoid seasons hostile to free-living stages. Survival of L3 on pasture is an environmental strategy, not hypobiosis.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
A pooled faecal sample contains 1,000 EPG of strongyle-type eggs, and larval culture identifies 60% of L3 as Haemonchus. The estimated Haemonchus contribution is:
B. 600 EPG
1,000 × 0.60 = 600 EPG. 400 is the non-Haemonchus fraction; 1,600 adds 600 to the total instead of taking 60% of it. Larval culture (or PCR) is needed because strongyle-type eggs look alike.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Faecal egg counts in a group of lambs average 1,200 EPG before treatment and 150 EPG 14 days after. What is the faecal egg count reduction?
C. 87.5%
FECR = 100 × (1 − 150 ÷ 1,200) = 100 × (1 − 0.125) = 87.5%. 12.5% is the fraction surviving, not the reduction; 8.0% is the fold-reduction (1,200 ÷ 150) read as a percentage, and 700.0% divides the fall (1,050) by the post-treatment instead of the pre-treatment count. At below 95%, resistance is suspected under the classic 1992 WAAVP criterion; the 2023 WAAVP FECRT guideline replaces it with host- and drug-specific thresholds, minimum egg counts and an 'inconclusive' category.
Further reading: Coles et al. 1992 and Kaplan et al. 2023, WAAVP FECRT guidelines
Ten here, 33 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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