Parasitofauna and current status of anthelmintic resistance in Latvian sheep farms

Vet World Vol.15 February-2022 Article-23

Research Article

Veterinary World, 15(2): 414-418

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.414-418

Dace Keidāne¹, Alīna Kļaviņa¹, Marta Barbara Bergmane², and Līga Kovaļčuka²

1. Institute of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, K. Helmana street 8, Jelgava, LV-3004, Latvia.
2. Clinical Institute, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, K. Helmana street 8, Jelgava, LV-3004, Latvia.

Background and Aim: Parasitic invasions, especially gastrointestinal nematodes, are widespread and are one of the main problems in sheep farms. For this reason, sheep are dewormed more often than other livestock species, often several times a year. Concerns about antiparasitic resistance from the farmers and veterinarians have arisen because, on some farms, antiparasitic drugs are used routinely for very long periods. There are no data available on anthelmintic resistance in gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep in Latvia. Our work aimed to determine the most common endoparasites in sheep and the degree of anthelmintic resistance on sheep farms in Latvia.

Materials and Methods: All sheep (577) underwent a coprological examination before the start of the study, and only sheep diagnosed with more than 200 McMaster eggs per gram of feces were included in the study. A fecal egg count reduction (FECR) test was performed on 20 sheep flocks in Latvia.

Results: In Latvia, sheep were most commonly infected with Eimeria spp. 97% (confidence interval [CI] 95% 96-98). The second most commonly diagnosed species were Trichostrongylidae 91% (CI 95% 89-93) and Strongyloides spp. 76% (CI 95%, 72-79). The ivermectin (IVM) FECR was 0.74% (0.73-0.74), showing resistance in all sheep farms included in this study. Albendazole (ABZ) FECR 0.89% (0.88-0.89) was effective.

Conclusion: This study showed that the most popular deworming drugs (ivermectin, albendazole) in Latvia are ineffective in sheep. Additional studies on the use of IVM+ABZ combinations for deworming sheep should be performed. Keywords: anthelmintic resistance, gastrointestinal parasites, sheep.

Keywords: anthelmintic resistance, gastrointestinal parasites, sheep.

How to cite this article: Keidāne D, Kļaviņa A, Bergmane MB, Kovaļčuka L (2022) Parasitofauna and current status of anthelmintic resistance in Latvian sheep farms, Veterinary World, 15(2): 414-418.

Received: 12-09-2021 Accepted: 18-01-2022 Published online: 23-02-2022

Corresponding author: Līga Kovaļčuka E-mail: kovalcuka@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.414-418

Copyright: Keidāne, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.