Assistência técnica integral à caprinocultura leiteira no semiárido com ênfase no controle parasitário.

Abstract

This thesis contains three articles which are divided into chapters. The first chapter is a review covering various aspects for the control of gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) of goats, including: 1) the differences between goats and sheep to GIN infections; 2) important epidemiological aspects to consider in the control; and 3) technologies to be used for integrated control of GIN and anthelmintic resistance. The second chapter describes the strategies for gastrointestinal parasites control applied, from July 2010 to November 2012, in eight dairy goat farms, located in the semiarid region of the state of Paraiba, Northeastern Brazil. Monthly visits were made to the farms for conducting clinical evaluation of the flocks and to collect fecal samples of 10% of the goats to perform parasitological fecal egg count (FEC). Furthermore, in herds treated with anti-helminthic, when the drug efficiency decreased, resistance tests were performed to choice another anti-helminthic. After 20 months of monitoring with OPG, two farms were selected to control GIN by FAMACHA © during eight months. Throughout the study the farmers who held control based on OPG, treated their flocks 3.1±0.7 times a year. During the first year the number of treatments during the rainy period (2.3±1.1) was significantly higher (P <0, 05) than during the dry period (1.5±0.8). In the second and third year it was not possible to perform this comparison due to the long period of drought. In the farms in which FAMACHA © was used, 41.2% of the animals were no treated, 26.1% were treated once, and 32.5% were treated twice or more times, with an average 1.2±1.5 treatment/animal. At the same period, in the farms controlled by FEC the mean was 0.8 treatment per goat. Multiple anti-helminthic resistance was observed in the seven farms in which the resistance test was performed. However, no outbreak of gastrointestinal parasites were observed during the period. The third chapter describes a multidisciplinary study in eight dairy goat farms from the semiarid of Paraíba performed for a two years period with the aim to identify the main limiting factors for milk production and to propose and evaluate intervention strategies. In the first year, seven farms had forage deficiency during the dry season, but only two during the rainy season. In the second year, after technical advertisement, six farms still had forage deficiency during the dry season and only two during the rainy season. The average milk production per goat was 1.19 liters. Zootechnical bookkeeping was originally not practiced in any farm at the start of the study, but it was gradually and partially established. The main diseases recorded were caseous lymphadenitis, subclinical mastitis, keratoconjunctivitis and contagious ecthyma. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis, caseous lymphadenitis and gastrointestinal parasitoses were reduced after technical assistance. After analyzing the data, it can be concluded that a continuous and multidisciplinary technical assistance may minimize the factors limiting dairy goat production. The study showed that farmers accept the new technologies if they are appropriate to the production systems and are gradually implemented.