National Veterinary Examination (獣医師国家試験) · Japan · Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), with the Veterinary Affairs Council
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersFlies, mosquitoes, midges, lice, fleas, ticks and mites: the damage they do themselves and the diseases they carry, and the ectoparasiticides used against them.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF core group 06; ICAR AIEEA-PG 13 (Parasitology)
How our questions for National Veterinary Examination spread across the units of Veterinary Entomology & Acarology. Difficulty: 8 easy, 29 medium, 8 hard.
| Mange mites | 7 | |
| Vectors of babesiosis and theileriosis | 6 | |
| Lice | 5 | |
| Ectoparasiticides and resistance | 5 | |
| Flies | 4 | |
| Fleas | 4 | |
| Mosquitoes | 3 | |
| Hard ticks | 3 | |
| Myiasis | 3 | |
| Culicoides midges | 2 | |
| Vectors of bluetongue and lumpy skin disease | 2 | |
| Soft ticks | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Between Rift Valley fever epidemics the virus survives in dry periods mainly by:
B. Transovarial passage into drought-resistant eggs of floodwater Aedes
Floodwater Aedes carry RVF virus in their eggs, which hatch when heavy rains flood dambos, starting a new cycle; Culex then amplify it. Persistent carrier cattle and tick passage are not the recognised maintenance mechanism.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Sweet itch (insect bite hypersensitivity) in horses is caused mainly by hypersensitivity to the saliva of:
B. Culicoides midges
Insect bite hypersensitivity is a predominantly type I allergy to Culicoides salivary proteins. Chorioptes causes itchy legs in feathered horses but is a mite infestation, not a hypersensitivity to biting insects.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Cattle with chewing lice (Bovicola bovis) and sucking lice were treated with an injectable macrocyclic lactone. Three weeks later the sucking lice have gone but chewing lice remain. The best explanation is:
C. Chewing lice feed on skin debris and ingest little of a systemically distributed drug
Injectable endectocides reach blood-feeding sucking lice well but chewing lice poorly; pour-on formulations or other topical products are needed for chewing lice. Resistance is possible but is not the general explanation, and lice live permanently on the host.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
The dog chewing louse Trichodectes canis is of clinical importance beyond pruritus because it is an intermediate host of:
B. Dipylidium caninum
Like the cat flea, T. canis can carry the cysticercoid of Dipylidium caninum, and dogs are infected by swallowing lice. Hepatozoon canis is acquired by swallowing ticks, and Dirofilaria is mosquito-borne.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
A dog with canine monocytic ehrlichiosis lives in a kennel with a long-standing tick infestation that persists indoors through winter. The vector is most likely:
A. Rhipicephalus sanguineus
The brown dog tick uses dogs for all stages, completes its cycle indoors and transmits Ehrlichia canis. The other ticks live outdoors in vegetation.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
A dog with intense pruritus of the ear margins, elbows and hocks kicks with its hind leg when the ear margin is rubbed. Three superficial skin scrapings are negative. The most appropriate interpretation is:
C. Sarcoptic mange remains likely; negative scrapings are common, so a treatment trial or serology is justified
The distribution and pinnal-pedal reflex strongly suggest scabies, and Sarcoptes is often not found in scrapings. Assuming negative scrapings exclude it is the classic error.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
A heavy horse with feathered lower legs stamps and bites at its pasterns; skin debris shows mites with short unjointed pedicels and cup-shaped suckers. The mite is:
B. Chorioptes bovis
Short unjointed pedicels with cup suckers identify Chorioptes, typical of feathered legs in heavy horses. Psoroptes has long jointed pedicels and Sarcoptes long unjointed ones.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
A kitten has dark brown, crumbly waxy discharge in both ear canals and shakes its head. The most likely parasite is:
D. Otodectes cynotis
Otodectes cynotis lives in the ear canal and produces dark waxy discharge. Notoedres causes crusts on the ear margins and face rather than inside the canal.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Koch's blue bodies seen in a Giemsa-stained lymph node smear from a febrile cow are:
B. Theileria schizonts in lymphocytes
Koch's blue bodies are Theileria macroschizonts. Babesia piroplasms are found in erythrocytes, not lymphocytes.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Amitraz should not be used on horses because it:
D. Causes gut stasis and colic
Amitraz reduces gut motility in horses, leading to impaction colic. It is a formamidine acting on octopamine receptors in arthropods and alpha-2 receptors in mammals, not an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Ten here, 45 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to National Veterinary Examination 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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