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Economic efficacy of anthelmintic treatments in dairy sheep naturally infected by gastrointestinal strongyles.

The aim of the present paper was to assess benefit of strategic anthelmintic treatments on milk production in six commercial dairy sheep farms, located in southern Italy, whose animals were naturally infected with gastrointestinal strongyles. On each farm, two similar groups were formed, one untreated control group and one treated group. In all the treated groups, the strategic anthelmintic schemes were based on: (i) only one treatment with moxidectin in the periparturient period (February, Farm No. 6), or; (ii) two treatments, i.e. the first with moxidectin performed in the periparturient period (February, Farms Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4) or in the postparturient period (April, Farm No. 5), and the second with netobimin at the mid/end of lactation (June, Farms Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Faecal egg count reduction (FECR) tests were performed on each farm in order to asses the anthelmintic efficacy of the drugs used. In addition, milk yield measurements for each animal fortnightly in each farm for the lactation period were performed. In terms of FECR, both moxidectin and netobimin were effective in all the 6 studied farms. Regarding milk production, overall in the 6 study farms the mean daily milk productions of the treated groups were higher than those of the control group. However, there were important differences between the 6 farms, i.e. the increase of milk production in the treated groups versus the control groups was as follows: +18.9% (Farm 1), +30.4% (Farm 2), +4.0% (Farm 3), +37.0% (Farm 4), +5.5% (Farm 5) and +40.8% (Farm 6). The results of the study showed that the economic efficacy of an anthelmintic treatment is not a cause-effect issue, but is a multifactorial issue which depends upon the quali-quantitative parasitological status of the animals, the pathogenesis of the species of parasites, the virulence of the strains of parasites, the local epidemiology, the timing of treatment, the breed of animal in terms of genetics and production types, nutrient supply.