The Animal Biology

A CASE REPORT: SHEEP ENDOPARASITISM DYNAMICS UNDER SEMI-DRY CONTINENTAL CLIMATE OF KARCAG, HUNGARY

M. Tóth¹, R. Khangembam¹, R. Farkas², J. Oláh¹, N. Vass¹, I. Monori³

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³University of Debrecen, Research Institute of Karcag,
Kisújszállási út. 166, Karcag, 5300, Hungary

The main aim of the study was to have a preliminary assessment of the endoparasites which are infecting sheep under semi-dry continental climate in Karcag, Hungary.

Two groups of Hungarian Merino sheep were assigned as treated (N=40) and untreated (N=20) after selecting the animals randomly. Only the Treated group was drenched two times with commercially available deworming drugs. Faecal samples were collected individually from both the groups to perform faecal egg count; body condition score and FAMACHA scores were also taken to assess body and anaemia conditions respectively. The temperature and humidity conditions were also obtained to check the optimum environmental condition that could influence the worm burden. The case study was done at the University of Debrecen Experimental Animal Farm, Karcag.

Parasitic nematodes, namely, trichostrongylid/trichostrongyles nematodes, Protostrongylus sp. and Strongylus sp. were found to be more predominant species affecting the sheep and up to some degree with the tapeworm Moniezia sp. and the coccidian, Eimeria sp. During the study period, there was no clinically significant anaemic condition and the animals were found to have fairly good body condition. Yet, the infection intensity, mainly of the trichostrongyles, was significant even after the second drenching. This may be due to the optimum environmental condition coinciding with the grazing period which increased the parasitic loads in the fields. Another possibility is the presence of resistant worm population as there is no proper assessment of the effectiveness and/or resistance of the drenching drugs commonly used in Hungary. 

The study is only a preliminary report of endoparasitism of sheep under a particular Hungarian climatic condition. It is obvious that parasites, mainly of the nematodes, do occur and may be an increasing concern with time. Keeping this in mind, there is a need for a wider prevalence study and if possible, anthelmentic resistance studies of the commonly used drugs to check their efficacies.

Keywords: SHEEP, ENDOPARASITE, NEMATODES, SEMI-DRY, ENVIRONMENT

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