Roadmap for development of therapeutics for helminths

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

• Develop rodent models to replace the use of higher mammals (e.g. cats, dogs, horses, ruminants)
• Rodents are highly inbred and therefore there is less animal-to-animalvariability.
• Develop animal models that do not use mammals (e.g. fish)

What are the scientific and technological challenges (knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

• Most helminth parasites are quite host-specific, making it difficult to develop animal models for those parasites
• Model systems will need to be developed and validated independently for each helminth species
• Model systems are unlikely to be translatable for toxicity studies because there are many host-specific toxicities that are not seen in other animals

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

• Perform research to test the potential of multiple different rodent and non-rodent model systems to support the development of multiple important parasite species of domestic animals (e.g. cats, dogs, horses, ruminants)
• Testing and validating non-traditional screening systems such as a zebrafish nematode model

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

No real obstacles to performing this line of research other than funding

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

A gerbil and a rat model exists for testing drugs against Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus spp.