ICAR AIEEA (PG): Master's entrance, Veterinary Science and Animal Sciences · 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 AIEEA (PG) — Code 13 Veterinary Science (Parasitology)
Intermediate hosts and infective stages, metacestode names and predilection sites, prepatent periods, egg identification, routes of transmission (transplacental, transmammary, paratenic), and matching anthelmintics to their class and spectrum.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA spread across the units of General Veterinary Parasitology & Helminthology. Difficulty: 26 easy, 19 medium, 4 hard.
| Anthelmintic resistance | 6 | |
| Diagnosis and control of helminths | 5 | |
| Taxonomy of parasites | 4 | |
| Trematodes: Fasciola | 4 | |
| Schistosomes | 4 | |
| Parasite life cycles | 4 | |
| Host-parasite relationships | 3 | |
| Amphistomes | 3 | |
| Cestodes: Taenia and Echinococcus | 3 | |
| Moniezia | 3 | |
| Nematodes: Haemonchus | 3 | |
| Pathogenesis of helminth infections | 3 | |
| Toxocara and Ancylostoma | 2 | |
| Dirofilaria | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A metacestode consisting of a single bladder bearing many scolices, found in the brain of sheep, is a:
C. Coenurus
Coenurus cerebralis of Taenia multiceps has many scolices budding from one bladder wall. A cysticercus has a single scolex; a hydatid produces brood capsules with protoscolices inside an internal germinal layer, not scolices directly on the bladder.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
'Pipe-stem liver' seen at slaughter in cattle with chronic fasciolosis refers to:
B. Thickened, calcified bile ducts
Chronic cholangitis caused by adult flukes leads to fibrosis and calcification of bile ducts, which grate when cut. Milk spots are a pig lesion caused by Ascaris suum.
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.)
Cysticercus cellulosae is the metacestode of:
A. Taenia solium
Cysticercus cellulosae of T. solium develops in pig muscle and, when people swallow eggs, in the human brain (neurocysticercosis). T. saginata produces Cysticercus bovis in cattle.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
The intermediate host of Moniezia expansa is:
A. Free-living oribatid (pasture) mites
A cysticercoid develops in oribatid mites, which lambs swallow while grazing. Fleas transmit Dipylidium caninum; land snails transmit Dicrocoelium and Muellerius; dung beetles transmit Macracanthorhynchus.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
The infective stage of trichostrongylid nematodes on pasture is the:
A. Ensheathed third-stage larva (L3)
The L3 retains the L2 cuticle as a sheath, cannot feed and is the stage swallowed by the grazing host. Embryonated eggs are infective for ascarids and Trichuris, not trichostrongyles (Nematodirus is the partial exception, hatching late).
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Dicrocoelium dendriticum requires which intermediate hosts?
D. Land snails, then ants
Cercariae leave land snails in slime balls, which ants eat; infected ants climb grass and are eaten by grazing animals. There is no aquatic stage, so Dicrocoelium occurs on dry calcareous pasture.
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.)
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
Levamisole and pyrantel act on nematodes by:
B. Stimulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, causing spastic paralysis
Imidazothiazoles and tetrahydropyrimidines are nicotinic agonists. Flaccid paralysis via glutamate-gated chloride channels is the macrocyclic lactone mechanism; uncoupling is the salicylanilide mechanism.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Ten here, 49 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AIEEA 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.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
An AI operating system for agriculture: free guides, manuals and tools written for every country.