Evaluation of the Efficacy of Sorghum Chaff for the Control of Helminthiasis in Yankasa Rams.

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the anti-helminthic effect of sorghum chaff fed to small ruminants. Fifteen growing Yankasa rams with an average live weight of 17.5 kg were dewormed using Albendazole at 10mg/kg body weight and infected with nematodes larvae (2,100 L3 of strongyle per ram) and allotted to five (5) treatments of 0%, 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% inclusion levels of sorghum chaff in diets in a completely randomized design with three replications. Each ram was offered the experimental diet at 1.5% of its body weight as supplement daily for eight weeks. Faecal samples were collected from the rams before and at the end of the experiment to detect the presence of parasitic infections (fecal egg and oocyst counts). The control treatment (0% sorghum chaff) was dewormed using Albendazole at 10mg/kg body weight. The results showed mild infestations with strongyle and moniezia at four weeks after L3 infestation but were statistically (P>0.05) similar. Similarly, there were no significant (P>0.05) differences observed in the number of eggs per gram of faeces across treatments at week six, but numerically, animals on treatment 4 (60% inclusion level of sorghum chaff) had better worm clearance relative to other treatments. It was concluded that inclusion of sorghum chaff in the diets of small ruminants up to 60% level could be used to control gastrointestinal nematodes infestation in sheep. Further studies to isolate the active ingredients having anti-helminthic effect in the sorghum chaff and standard inclusion levels are hereby recommended.