Use of FAMACHA to Detect Anaemia and Control of Gastrointestinal Parasite in Goats of A and N Islands, India

Background: FAffaMAlanCHArt (FAMACHA) is a technique for treating the animals infested with gastrointestinal parasites by using clinical anaemia as the determinant. The test is based on the assessment of colour variation of the conjunctival mucous membrane. Methods: In the present study FAMACHA has been standardized and used to correlate the anaemic status of goats with faecal egg count (gastro intestinal parasites) and blood profile. On the basis of FAMACHA score and faecal egg count, the goats were treated with benzimidazole compound and macrocyclic lactone. Result: The result indicated significant (P less than 0.05) reduction in the faecal egg count of Haemonchus spp from 1200±155.76 to 525±75, Strongyloides spp from 469.57±77.37 to 78.26±33.83 and Eimeria spp from 900±240.05 to 195.65±55.34 respectively. FAMACHA score of anaemic goats improved from 4.08±0.11 to 3.2±0.13. Mean haemoglobin (g/dl), packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell (RBC) and white blood cell (WBC) improved from 8.33 to 8.99, 22.66 to 24.86, 13.73 to 14.76 and 18029 to 19894, respectively which indicated clinical improvement. Highly significant (P less than 0.01) correlation was observed between the FAMACHA score and the haemoglobin level. It could be concluded that FAMACHA is a very handy tool to detect anaemic status of the animals and correlate with gastrointestinal parasitic load.

Comparison between methods for measuring fecal egg count and estimating genetic parameters for gastrointestinal parasite resistance traits in sheep

Fecal egg count (FEC) is an indicative measurement for parasite infection in sheep. Different FEC methods may show inconsistent results. Not accounting for inconsistencies can be problematic when integrating measurements from different FEC methods for genetic evaluation. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the difference in means and variances between two fecal egg counting methods used in sheep, the Modified McMaster (LMMR) and the Triple Chamber McMaster (LTCM); to estimate variance components for the two FEC methods, treating them as two different traits; and to integrate FEC data from the two different methods and estimate genetic parameters for FEC and other gastrointestinal parasite resistance traits. Fecal samples were collected from a commercial Rideau-Arcott sheep farm in Ontario. Fecal egg counting was performed using both Modified McMaster and the Triple Chamber McMaster methods. Other parasite resistance trait records were collected from the same farm including eye score (FAMACHA ©), body condition score (BCS), and body weight (WT). The two FEC methods were highly genetically (0.94) and phenotypically (0.88) correlated. However, the mean and variance between the two FEC methods were significantly different (P < 0.0001). Therefore, re-scaling is required prior to integrating data from the different methods. For the multiple trait analysis, data from the two fecal egg counting methods were integrated (LFEC) by using records for the LMMR when available and replacing missing records with re-standardized LTCM records converted to the same mean and variance of LMMR. Heritability estimates were 0.12 ± 0.04, 0.07 ± 0.05 , 0.17 ± 0.06, and 0.24 ± 0.07 for LFEC egg count, FAMACHA ©, BCS, and WT, respectively. The estimated genetic correlations between fecal egg count and the other parasite resistance traits were low and not significant (P>0.05) for FAMACHA © (r= 0.24 ± 0.32) and WT (r= 0.22 ± 0.19), and essentially zero for BCS (r= -0.03 ± 0.25), suggesting little to no benefit of using such traits as indicators for LFEC.

363 Relationship Between Parasite Load and Performance in Goat Kids at Weaning and Early Post Weaning

Goats are small ruminants that have enormous potential to boost the economy and be a major source of income especially to marginal farmers and landless laborers. A very common and economically important condition, which affects domestic livestock species worldwide, is Gastrointestinal (GI) parasitism. Haemonchus contortus is the gastrointestinal parasite most common in small ruminants. To better understand the impact of GI parasitism, a study was conducted to research the relationship between parasite load and performance in goat kids at weaning and 60 d post-weaning. Fecal samples were collected at weaning and 60 d post-weaning and egg counts were performed using the modified McMasters technique. Data collected included weights, Fecal Egg Count at weaning, and at 60 d post-weaning. The average fecal egg count at weaning was 830 eggs per gram and 1103 eggs per gram 60 d post-weaning for H. contortus. Egg count at weaning was significantly related to weight at both weaning and 60 d post-weaning (P < .0001 and P = .0003 respectively), but not to ADG (P > .05). Fecal egg count at 60 d post-weaning was not significantly related to either weight or ADG (P > .05). Egg counts at weaning and 60 days post-weaning were not related (P = .0708). The results indicate that early parasite infection can influence animal weights. The lack of a significant correlation between egg counts at weaning and 60 d post weaning indicates a need to evaluate parasite load at later ages in kids when selecting for resistance.

Gastrointestinal Parasite Infection on Stray Cat and Pet Cat at Blitar Regency, East Java Province

The purpose of this study was to find out the parasite species and prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite on stray cat and pet cat at Blitar. In an amount of 90 cats feces were collected from two different types of sample, those are stray cat and pet- cat from three sub-districts located at Blitar Regency. Cats feces were analyzed with native, sedimentation and float techniques. The result showed that prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite infection on cat at Blitar was amounted to 71% at stray cat and 40% at pet cat. The parasite that was found in this research are Toxocara cati, Ancylostoma sp. and Isospora sp.

Seasonal dynamics and repeatability of gastrointestinal parasite burdens in wild Soay sheep

Seasonality is a ubiquitous feature of wildlife disease ecology, but is determined by a complex interplay of environmental, parasitological and host factors. Gastrointestinal parasites often exhibit strong seasonal dynamics in wild vertebrate populations due to, for example, environmental influences on free-living or vectored life stages, and variation in the physiological and immune status of hosts across their annual cycle. At the same time, wild populations are typically infected with multiple parasites. The seasonal dynamics of co-infecting parasites may differ depending on age and reproductive status, and associations among parasites may be driven by short-term within-individual changes or longer-term interactions that are consistent among hosts. Here, we used faecal samples and egg counts collected repeatedly from individually marked and monitored wild Soay sheep that were part of a long-term study to investigate seasonal dynamics of six gastrointestinal parasite groups (strongyle nematodes, coccidian protozoa, Capillaria, Strongyloides, Nematodirus, and Moniezia). Prevalence and abundance generally tended to be higher spring and summer, and burdens were higher in lambs than adults. Within the highly prevalent strongyle nematode group, we found differences in seasonality of egg counts depending on adult reproductive status. Reproductive ewes had increased counts in spring around the time of birth followed by a drop in abundance in summer, while barren ewes showed little evidence of seasonality. Males showed a sustained rise in egg counts through spring and summer, and sex differences were only strongly apparent in summer. In contrast, in similarly prevalent coccidia we found a peak in faecal oocyst counts in spring but no differences in seasonality among males, barren and pregnant ewes. Using multivariate mixed-effects models, we went on to show that both strongyle and coccidia counts are moderately repeatable across seasons among individuals. We further show that apparent positive correlation between strongyle and coccidia counts was driven by short-term within-individual changes in both parasite burdens rather than long-term among-individual covariation. Overall, our results demonstrate that seasonality varies across demographic and parasite groups and highlight the value of investigating fluctuating susceptibility and exposure over time for understanding epidemiology of a population.