TY  - JOUR
AU  - Marshall, Renita 
AU  - Gebrelul, Sebhatu 
AU  - Gray, Lisa 
AU  - Ghebreiyessus, Yemane 
PY  - 2012
TI  - Mixed Species Grazing of Cattle and Goats  on Gastrointestinal Infections of Haemonchus Contortus
JF  - American Journal of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
VL  - 7
IS  - 2
DO  - 10.3844/ajavsp.2012.61.66
UR  - https://thescipub.com/abstract/ajavsp.2012.61.66
AB  - At the present time, the meat of goat is the fastest growing class of livestock in the U.S.A. Due to the sub-tropical climate in the South Eastern region of the US, internal parasites pose a major constraint to the industry. The blood-feeding nematode, Haemonchus contortus results in production losses and even death in untreated animals. The control of H. contortus calls for the use of a combination of different control methods/strategies. An experiment was conducted over three successive years (2008, 2009 and 2010) to evaluate the effects of mixed species grazing on fecal egg counts (FEC in epg), FAMACHA© scores (FS) and Packed Cell Volume (% PCV) in goats. In a 2×2 factorial, 50 Spanish does and 14 Brangus cows were randomly assigned to continuous or rotational grazing systems. Goats were allowed to graze alone or mixed with cattle. The rotational pastures were divided into four paddocks and each paddock was grazed for 7d and allowed to rest for 21d. Every 28d Body Weight (BW), body condition scores (BCS; 1 = thin and 5 = fat), FS (1 = red and 5 = white), blood and feces were collected. Fecal and blood samples were analyzed in the lab for FEC and %PCV. Data was statistically analyzed using SAS’s MIXED and correlation coefficients were determined among the measurements. Overall means for PCV, FEC, BCS and FS were 27.4%, 613 epg, 2.3 and 2.5, respectively. PCV was negatively correlated to FS (r = -0.35, p