Control of Strongyles in First-Season Grazing Ewe Lambs by Integrating Deworming and Thrice-Weekly Administration of Parasiticidal Fungal Spores

Abstract

Parasiticidal fungi have been used in several in vivo experiments in livestock farms worldwide, constituting an effective tool for the biocontrol of gastrointestinal parasites in grazing animals. In the first year of study, two groups of eight first-season pasturing ewe lambs infected by strongyles were dewormed with albendazole, and then, the test group received an oral dose of 106 chlamydospores of Mucor circinelloides and 106 Duddingtonia flagrans individually and thrice a week from mid-September to May (FS1), while the control group remained without fungi (CT1). In the second year, two new groups of first-season grazing ewe lambs were treated with ivermectin and subjected to the same experimental design (FS2 and CT2, respectively). The anthelmintic efficacy was 96.6% (CT1), 95.6% (FS1), 96.1% (CT2), and 95.1% (FS2). The counts of strongyle egg output increased in the control groups (CT1 and CT2) throughout the study and reached numbers higher than 600 eggs per gram of feces (EPG), while in FS1 and FS2, they were M. circinelloides and D. flagrans provides a helpful strategy for maintaining low levels of strongyle egg output in first-season grazing ewe lambs and improves their health status.

Keywords

• soil-transmitted helminths
• ovine
• biological control
• <i>Mucor circinelloides</i>
• <i>Duddingtonia flagrans</i>
• EPG counts