Effect of urea-molasses block supplementation on grazing weaner goats naturally infected with gastrointestinal nematodes

Abstract

<span>The influence of feeding urea-molasses blocks (UMB) on growth and gastrointestinal (GI) nematode parasitism of weaner goats grazing the same pasture was investigated on a farm in Nyandarua District, Kenya. Thirty female Small East African goat kids at an average age of 5 months were initially treated with albendazole orally (5 mg kg<sup>-1</sup> body mass) and randomly assigned into one of two groups: group I were fed UMB prepared using a cold process and group II kids (controls) received no block supplementation (NBS). The UMB were given in the evening when the animals returned from grazing and were consumed during the night at a rate of 95.0 g head<sup>-1</sup> day<sup>-1</sup>. Supplementation was undertaken for 3 consecutive months from July to September 2001 and January to March 2002. Body mass of the kids and faecal egg counts were measured monthly and larval cultures were performed on positive faecal samples of kids of each group. Five goats from each group were randomly selected for slaughter and total counts and identification of worms at the end of June 2002. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found in cumulative mass gains of kids in group I from September compared with those in group II. On termination of the study kids in group I had gained an average of (<span style="text-decoration: underline;">+</span> SD) 20.4 ± 1.4 kg while those in group II had gained 11.8 <span style="text-decoration: underline;">+</span> 1.1 kg. From January 2002, faecal egg counts of the kids in the UMB group differed significantly (P < 0.05) from those of the NBS group and at slaughter, the mean (<span style="text-decoration: underline;">+</span> SD) worm counts for the UMB group was 482 <span style="text-decoration: underline;">+</span> 299 while that of the NBS group was 1 302 <span style="text-decoration: underline;">+</span> 410. In all the goats, <em>Haemonchus contortus</em> was the predominant nematode recovered. These results indicate that UMB had significant effects in the control of GI nematode parasitism and enhanced growth of the young goats.</span&gt

Elevage caprin en Afrique de l’Ouest : une synthèse

“…Les blocs multinutritionnels constituent l'un des supports de cette supplémentation (Moujahed et al, 2003) et connaissent un succès croissant : ils ont été adoptés dans plus de 60 pays (Ben Salem et al, 2007). Au Kenya, la complémentation des caprins à base de bloc mélasse-urée a permis d'accroître le gmq de 83 g chez les animaux témoins à 151 g chez les animaux complétés (Waruiru et al, 2004). Le traitement de la paille à l'urée explore partiellement le même principe et constitue une autre voie d'augmentation de la productivité des animaux.…”

Parasitism management in animal production system: Sustainable approaches for their control

“…As an example, exist the work of Gárate-Gallardo et al (2015) in this trial one group of animals was fed with 108g fresh basis of ground maize, and two more groups were fed with ground maize at 1% and 1.5% daily, and the control group remain without supplementation; it is found animals supplemented with 1.5% of body weight increased their daily weight gain in24% compared to animals infected a no supplemented, besides, there was a decrease in the fecal egg count by 55% and the partial budget shows better total gains and a net gain of 5.8 dollars per animal (Gárate-Gallardo et al, 2015). Similarly, it is reported that the use blocks of urea-molasses decrease the fecal egg count and help animals to withstand the detrimental effects of the parasite and getting gains plus 45% in treated animals (Waruiru et al, 2004).…”

Extruded urea levels in lamb supplementation in rainy tropical savanna conditions: the triad host-gastrointestinal nematodes-environment

“…Mhomga et al, (2012) observed that there is a positive correlation between protein supplementation, weight gain and BCS in goats. In animals with moderate-heavy and undernourished infections, the higher the EPG, the greater the competition for nutrients, and in susceptible animals, the despoiling effect will result in evident clinical signs (Waruiru, Ngotho and Mutune, 2004), which will be re ected in a decrease in the good -being and expression of genetic, nutritional competence and, consequently, animal performance, whether for meat, milk and wool production (Charlier et al, 2020).…”