This study was developed to characterize the peripheral immune response during haemonchosis in goats by comparing genetically resistant and susceptible animals. We analysed the changes of circulating lymphocytes populations after experimental infection with Haemonchus contortus in sixteen nematode resistant (n= 8) and susceptible (n= 8) Creole kids (BW= 18.23±4.56 kg) which were kept under confinement receiving an ad libitum diet based on a mix of tropical hay. Kinetics of faecal eggs count (FEC), packed cell volume (PCV), eosinophilia, as well as body weight (BW) changes, were weekly monitored. Flow cytometry was used to follow changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) populations at early stage, 0, 3 and 35 days post-infection (d.p.i.). Data of FEC, PCV, eosinophilia and BW were analyzed by nonorthogonal contrast of SAS, while relative proportion of T lymphocyte (LT) sub-populations was compared across time by using GLIMMIX (SAS, 2000). Main significant differences in eosinophils counts were detectable from the beginning until 7 d.p.i., afterwards, no differences were found. At the beginning, PCV values were lower in susceptible animals compared to resistant but at physiological level (31.5 and 28.9 respectively, P=0.051). These differences became higher from 21 d.p.i. onwards. Interestingly, from 21 to 35 d.p.i. FEC in resistant animals were significantly lower than in susceptible. Thus, at the end of the infection susceptible animals showed a FEC 11 folds higher than resistant (P=0.031). However, no evolution across time and no difference between resistant and susceptible kids were evidenced in circulating LTCD8+ and LTCD4+ sub-populations. Surprisingly, a significant decrease in CD4+ sub-populations was evidenced throughout the experiment in both groups, probably due to a mucosal localization of activated cells. The analysis of the local immune response in the abomasal mucosa could help to verify this hypothesis.