Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of Trichostrongylus colubriformis infection on the hemato-biochemical parameters, feed digestibility, and nitrogen balance in Santa Inês lambs. Eighteen three-month-old Santa Ines castrated male lambs (16.9 ± 1.43 kg of body weight) were randomly distributed in two experimental treatments: infected with T. colubriformis (I, n = 9) and uninfected (U, n = 9). The I group received a total of 45,000 L3 larvae of T. colubriformis (5,000 infective larvae, three times per week, for three weeks). During the experimental period, blood, feed digestibility, and nitrogen balance were evaluated. The I lambs showed a reduction in erythrocytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, and total proteins, as well as an increase in platelets and eosinophils compared to those in the U group (p < 0.05). With the exception of total protein content, these values were within the normal range for the species. Furthermore, lower dry matter and organic matter digestibility were observed in the I lambs (p = 0.08). The present findings highlight that T. colubriformis infection has the potential to impair some hemato-biochemical parameters as well as feed digestibility in lambs, which could affect their productivity.

Highlights

  • Gastrointestinal parasites are one of the main causes of economic losses in small ruminant production animals (Mondragón-Ancelmo et al, 2019), and the degree of infection can lead to low productivity, high mortality rate, and delay in the animal’s body development

  • The I lambs exhibited reduced values of erythrocytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and MCV compared to U lambs (p < 0.05) (Table 1)

  • Infection with T. colubriformus had no effect on the number of circulating leukocytes in I lambs compared to U lambs (p > 0.05)

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Summary

Introduction

Gastrointestinal parasites are one of the main causes of economic losses in small ruminant production animals (Mondragón-Ancelmo et al, 2019), and the degree of infection can lead to low productivity, high mortality rate, and delay in the animal’s body development. Helminth infections in ruminants cause important hematological and biochemical changes, such as reduction in hemoglobin concentrations (Sotomaior & Thomaz-Soccol, 1998), erythrocytes (Cardia et al, 2011), and in tissue oxygenation determining cells. They cause an increase in immunoglobulins, mast cells, and leukocytes, both in blood and tissue levels (Harrison et al, 1999; Cardia et al, 2011). High total proteins exudation can be verified (Kyriazakis et al, 1996)

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