Biological control of gastrointestinal nematodes in young ewes treated with fungi

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the biological control of nematodes in young ewes receiving the fungi Duddingtonia flagrans (AC001) and Monacrosporium thaumasium (NF34) orally. The subjects were 40 Texel sheep, all female, between 12 and 24 months of age. At the beginning of the experiment, all animals received an oral dose of ivermectin. After 14 days, the animals were separated in four homogeneous groups of 10 animals: Group 1 received 3 g/10 kg of pellets containing mycelium of AC001 body weight twice a week; Group 2 received 3 g/10 kg of pellets containing mycelium of NF34 body weight twice a week; Group 3 received two doses of ivermectin (0.2 mg/kg of live weight) two and five months after the beginning of experiment (in the months of December and March) and Group 4, control, was untreated. Feces of each animal were collected weekly and every 14 days approximately 500 g of pasture crops were harvested of each pickets where the groups were located. The results show that AC001 and NF34 were efficient in reducing egg count per gram of feces (P < 0.05) and the count of L-3 in pastures. At the end of the experiment, the group of animals treated with AC001 presented 17.2 kg of weight gain accumulated in relation to other experimental groups. The fungi D. flagrans (AC001) and M. thaumasium (NF34) were efficient in the control of gastrointestinal nematodes in young ewes, promoting a decreased recurrence of infection, reflecting directly on the weight gain.