Epidemiology of ovine gastrointestinal parasites under different worm management strategies at an organized farm in arid Rajasthan Swarnkar C.P.*, Singh D. Division of Animal Health, ICAR - Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar- 304 501, Rajasthan *E-mail address: swarnkarcp@yahoo.com
Online published on 24 February, 2015. Abstract During the period from 2001 to 2014, a total of 24754 faecal samples were evaluated to assess the epidemiological profile of gastrointestinal (GI) parasites and performance of sheep under three different worm management strategies (conventional, modified and targeted selective) at the Sheep Breeding Farm, Fatehpur in arid Rajasthan. The climatic observations showed existence of suitable period for translation of exogenous stages of Haemonchus contortus and Trichstrongylus spp from mid-June to early October and from late October to early March, respectively. The overall incidence of strongyle worms (dominated by H. contortus) ranged from 51.1 (modified treatment) to 66.5% (conventional treatment) (P<0.001) and varied among months in all the three strategies. The incidence of other GI parasites viz., Trichuris spp, Strongyloides papillosus and Moneizia spp was very low while, incidence of Eimeria spp was moderate (27.7%). The monthly intensity of strongyle infection varied significantly (P<0.001) in all the treatment strategies and a peak was observed in October, August and August-September in conventional, modified and targeted selective treatment schemes, respectively. The mean herbage larval count varied significantly (P<0.001) from 32.7±22.1 (March) to 858.2±291.7 L3/kg dry matter of herbage (September). It was found that use of minimum anthelmintic intervention through modified or targeted selective treatment approach in farm flocks had no adverse effect on flock productivity and performance. It was concluded that conventional approach was not based on parasite epidemiology and there is no merit in adopting the conventional strategy in preference to the modified or targeted selective treatment strategy. The latter two strategies were more rewarding and provided better opportunities for gainful interaction between epidemiology, weather and management of flocks, reduced anthelmintic drench frequency, better rotational use of anthelmintic types, reduced selection pressure in parasite population and unwanted expenditure incurred on anthelmintics. Top Keywords Arid, Epidemiology, Gastrointestinal nematodes, Targeted selective treatment, Sheep. Top |