Intestinal worms in goats
Intestinal worms in goats Cue: Goats are a livestock species which many farmers find easier to keep. They tend to multiply quickly and owners are soon able to get a return on their investment. They also have a high immunity to disease. However, once in a while, young goats do die, and often the cause of death is internal parasites, such as tape worms, round worms and liver flukes. To find out more about how farmers can protect their goats, particularly their young animals, from the danger of internal parasites Patrick Mphaka spoke to Michael Watson Chikafa, Assistant Veterinary Officer in Blantyre District, Malawi. He began by asking how a farmer can recognise when his animal is infected. IN: ?Whenever a goat has been infected ? OUT: ?keep the disease most of the time.? DUR?N 3?13? BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Michael Watson Chikafa with some advice on de-worming goat flocks, in particular to protect young animals. Transcript Chikafa Whenever a goat has been infected with worms, the most likely thing that is noticed is a pot belly, emaciation, and the hair itself doesn?t look all that good, and there is loss of appetite, most of the times, and sometimes what you notice is just sudden death. Mphaka That?s really dangerous to see a goat dying because it has got worms. Is there anything else which farmers can do once they notice the symptoms which you have just talked about? Chikafa When a farmer realizes that there is a problem of the sort, most of the time what he has to do is to look for veterinary services. All he has to do is simply just to go to any veterinary station where he can get assistance. Mphaka Why do you think these problems affect the young goats and not the other goats of other ages? Chikafa These parasites most of the times they affect the young ones just because their immune status is just too low for them to resist. It does not necessarily mean that the older ones do not have them; they do have them but only that they are immune enough to protect themselves. Hence they do not suffer much from those parasites. Mphaka How does one goat which is safe get infected? Chikafa This problem is transmitted from one goat to another through droppings because whenever the feed is somehow contaminated with the droppings, eggs remain on the feed and when the other animal takes that feed, it gets infected right away. Mphaka Now, since the interest when we have the domesticated animals is normally to assist us as humans for meat, is there any danger for one to consume a goat which has got this problem? Chikafa Provided the meat has been inspected by professionals, it has no harm. But there is danger if ever people take the meat which is not inspected; there is a danger of contracting some of these diseases because some of the tapeworms are transmissible to human beings through meat. Mphaka When you are talking about round worms, tape worms, liver flukes, are they the same ones which sometimes we can say ?this person is suffering from round worms? and people go to hospital. Is this the same disease you are talking about? Chikafa There isn?t much of a difference because most of the worms we do suffer, normally we contract them from our own domestic animals. Mphaka If somebody stays a bit far from a veterinary office, is there any emergency treatment which they can do before they pay an actual visit to an office? Chikafa The only advice I can give to a farmer with animals is simply just to have some of the worm drugs ready. Normally, de-worming is supposed to be done at regular intervals, more especially during the rainy season. After three to four months, they have to be de-wormed as well. During the dry season they have to be de-wormed. In so they doing, a farmer mostly will have a healthy flock. Mphaka When you do the de-worming, do you target the smaller ones or the old ones as well? Chikafa We de-worm the whole flock because if we target only the young ones, definitely they will still contract the same disease from the old ones, since the old ones are immune enough to keep the disease most of the time. End of track.
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| Format: | Audio biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2004
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/57214 |
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