Internal parasites in goats and sheep
THE most common internal parasites in sheep and goats are lung worms, stomach worms, commonly called barber pole worm, liver flukes and intestinal parasites.
Parasites grow and reproduce in certain environments. Sheep and goats that live in those environments are at high risk of becoming infested. Lung worms and liver flukes grow and reproduce inside snails, which live in stagnant water. Sheep and goats that have access to stagnant water are at risk of being infested by these parasites. The eggs and larvae of stomach worms are commonly found on wet vegetation. Larvae can move up the grass where they are eaten by sheep or goats.
Most of the damage caused by parasites is due to mechanical irritation of the tissues they affect and the obstruction of an organ when there are too many worms. Lung worms irritate the bronchioles inside the lung and cause a local reaction with mucus and white blood cells. The irritation and pain causes the animal to cough.
Stomach worms are bloodsuckers and will destroy the lining of the stomach to access the bloodstream. The destruction of the lining of the stomach can cause abdominal pain, diarrhoea, anaemia, and weight loss due to the animal’s inability to digest feed completely. Liver flukes burrow tunnels in the liver causing scarring as the body tries to repair the damage.
Because scar tissue is not functional, the liver loses part of its normal function, which includes filtering the blood of toxins and waste products. The accumulation of these toxins in the animal’s blood can severely damage other organs including the brain.
A common sign of liver fluke infestation is depression. Coccidia live in the lining of the gut and it destroys the pathway that the animal uses for absorption of nutrients. The most common sign of coccidian infestation is diarrhoea which causes a dirty area below the tail and failure to thrive or weight loss.
Signs of parasite infestation in your goats include weight loss because animals are not getting all the nutrients they need; Diarrhoea which is the easiest sign to notice for most farmers because of a dirty tail; rough hair coat and general lack of smoothness; depression (animals keep their head and ears down and are not willing to stand for long periods of time); weakness; anaemia (the animals’ gums and eyes appear white due to blood loss); fever; fast breathing (lung worms) as the animal tries to compensate for damaged lungs by taking in more air and coughing from the irritation of damaged lungs.
Internal parasites infestation can lead to mortalities. In fact this year a lot of mortalities are being reported in goats and sheep in most areas. These are largely due to internal parasite infestation. We have made it clear on this platform that the disease burn this year will be higher than previous years due to plenty of rains which brought with them plenty of pathogens.
It is imperative therefore for goat and sheep farmers to adopt a proactive animal husbandry practice regime.
If you have no intention to lose your goats or sheep it is advisable to deworm them effectively. This means you need to liase with your local veterinary officers to get an appreciation of the type of internal parasites that are prevalent in your area so that you can apply the right dewormer to your animals. Farmers should not just buy a dewormer without proper consultation from people with the technical expertise.
However, use of broad spectrum anthelmintics can be useful to goat farmers. Farmers cannot just ignore their goats like they usually do. If you find it necessary to dose your cattle the same should apply to your goats. A goat infested with internal parasites will not thrive even with plenty of grazing. If the goat is not healthy it will impact on conception rates and ultimately herd growth. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo. or cell