Effect of a polyherbal additive on performance and parasite infection of hair creole ewes

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) infection represents several problems to livestock production. Control of GIN infection is usually achieved by the use of chemotherapeutic anthelmintic drugs. However, indiscriminate use of anthelmintics led to development of anthelmintic resistance. An alternative to chemical control is use of bioactive plants in animal feeds as natural anthelmintics. The objective of this experiment was to compare the effects of polyherbal additive containing high concentrations of saponins with a conventional chemical antiparasitic drug on performance and GIN counts of ewes.

Sixteen hair ewes (creole 19.05±0.895 kg initial BW) fed a basal diet, were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: 1) Doramectin (0.2 mg/kg BW, as positive control); 2) Polyherbal additive, Peptasan (4 grams/lamb/day) and 3) Control group that was not dewormed. The experiment was conducted for 28 days. At 0, 14, 21 and 28 parasite infections were assessed by fecal egg counts (FEC).

The daily gain was positively correlated (P<0.01) with herbal product (261 g/d) and Doramectin (146 g/d), in contrast with the control group (33 g/d). The number of eggs per gram of feces (EPG) was significantly (P<0.01) reduced by Peptasan (90 EPG) compared to Doramectin (711 EPG) after 28 days of treatment. At the same time the EPG in control group was remained unchanged (4566 eggs/g). Infection with GIN can affect feed utilization and lamb performance and polyherbal products are alternative anthelmintics to reduce the parasitic infection in growing ewes.