EFFECTS OF PURGE POTATO (OPERCULINA MACROCARPA) IN MULTINUTRITIONAL BLOCKS ON SHEEP NATURALLY INFECTED WITH GASTROINTESTINAL HELMINTH

Abstract

This work aimed to assess the efficiency of purge-potato (Operculina macrocarpa) incorporated to the multi-nutritional blocks (MBs) on the gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep. The work was carried out in the Lameirão Farm in the municipality of Santa Teresinha-PB, Brazil, according to a completely randomized design, with four treatments and six repetitions of one animal. The treatments were: T1 = only MBs; T2 = MBs + purge-potato (1g/Kg/live weight); T3 = MBs + purge-potato (0.5g/Kg/lw) and T4 = MBs + chemical anthelmintic. The daily  and final weight gains showed to be more elevated in the treatments MBs with phytotherapic or chemical anthelmintic, with ADWG = 56.7; 38.3, 53.8g and TWG = 3.4 ; 2.3; 3.1kg for the T2, T3 and T4 respectively. The EPG decreased at seven days in the treatments T2, T3 and T4 with 767, 516, 267 and efficiency of 53, 68 and 84% respectively, presenting at 60 days a lower value in the EPG 2017 and 46% efficiency for the T2. In the fecal culture were identified two genus with a higher prevalence of the Haemonchus sp. in all the treatments. Were recovered the parasites Haemonchus contortus, Trichostrongylus colubriformis, Strongyloides papillosus, Oesophagostomum columbianum. The treatments with the addition of purge-potato (O. macrocarpa) , presented considerable efficacy for a phytotherapic, and in this way, this control method with multi-nutritional blocks added with the phytotherapic in the doses of 0.5 to 1g/Kg/lw would be used to reduce the levels of global infections of the parasites.