Effects of ensiled cassava (Manihot esculenta) foliage compared to a soybean meal supplement on gastrointestinal nematode infections in goats

Abstract

Twenty four 4-6 months-old male goats weighing 15.2 ± 2.8 kg, were randomly allocated acrding to their live weight (LWt) into three treatments to investigate the effects of cassava foliage silage (CaS) on the level of gastrointestinal (GI) nematode parasites. One group of individually penned goats was fed CaS ad libitum for 10 weeks. A second group was fed grass only (CTL) and a third group given grass supplemented with 50 g urea molasses plus 200 g soybean meal/head/day (UM). At the start of the experiment, all goats were inoculated with 3,000 third-stage GI nematode larvae (L3). There was a significant difference in cumulative live weight (LWt) among the three treatments (p < 0.001): all 8 CaS and 6 of the UM goats gained weight (average daily gain was 60.4 and 6.7 g/day, respectively), whereas goats in CTL lost weight (-6.1 g/day). The nematode faecal egg counts (FEC) in the CTL and UM groups fluctuated between 1,000 epg after three weeks of L3 infection to 2,500 epg at the end of the trial, while the FEC of the CaS goats remained below 200 epg throughout the experiment (p < 0.001). At the end of the experiment, the CaS and UM groups had 28% and 26% blood packed cell volume (PCV), respectively, which was significantly higher than the 21% in the CTL group (p £ 0.001). The majority (30-78%) of the adult worms identified at slaughter was Haemonchus contortus, followed by Trichostrongylus colubriformis (20-48%), T. axei (2-17%) and a small number of Strongyloides spp. (< 5%). compared to CTL and UM, the CaS goats had lower total worm burdens (p < 0.05) and numbers of Haemonchus contortus (p £ 0.001). It is evident that the goats fed ensiled cassava foliage were more resilient and resistant to GI nematode parasitism, and in particular to Haemonchus contortus, compared to those only given protein supplementation.

Keywords

Anthelmintic efficacy; Cassava foliage silage; Goats; Haemonchus contortus; Parasite control; Protein supplementation

Published in

Livestock Research For Rural Development
2010, volume: 22, number: 6

SLU Authors

• Höglund, Johan

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Clinical Science

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/132458