Abstract

ARECE, J; RODRIGUEZ-DIEGO, J.G  and  LOPEZ, Y. FAMACHA^® METHODOLOGY: STRATEGY FOR THE CONTROL OF OVINE GASTROINTESTINAL STRONGYLES. PRELIMINARY RESULTS. Rev Salud Anim. [online]. 2007, vol.29, n.2, pp. 91-94. ISSN 0253-570X.

In order to evaluate FAMACHA^® eye colour chart to determine anaemia in sheep as indispensable step for the establishment of this methodology in the control of haemonchosis under Cuban conditions, 66 Pelibuey sheeps with six months of age and body weight average of 24 kg infested by gastrointestinal strongyles with a high presence of Haemonchus spp., were used. The colour of the ocular conjunctive (COC) was determined through the FAMACHA card which has five points in the scale. Samples of blood and faeces were extracted from each animal in order to determine the packed cell volume (PCV) and the faecal egg count (FEC). The correlation between the COC and the PCV was inverse (p <0,01). Animals were considered anaemic if PCV =19. Sensitivity and the specificity were high (75 and 100%, respectively) for the four and five values of the FAMACHA^® scale. The predictive value of a negative case was high (superior to 99%) while the predictive value of the positive one was 100%. Animals with category four presented the highest faecal count of eggs. The results indicate that FAMACHA^® methodology is a useful tool under these conditions to detect anaemia in grazing sheep. However, it is necessary to go deep into these researches before proposing this methodology to manage haemonchosis.

Keywords : FAMACHA^®; sheep; parasite control; Haemonchus.

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