Version 1
: Received: 10 May 2023 / Approved: 11 May 2023 / Online: 11 May 2023 (05:19:15 CEST)
How to cite:
ElHamdi, S.; Sassi, L.; Rekik, M.; Dhehibi, M.; Mhamed, H. C.; Gharbi, M. Conservation Agriculture Has No Significant Impact on Sheep Digestive Parasitism. Preprints2023, 2023050795. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0795.v1
ElHamdi, S.; Sassi, L.; Rekik, M.; Dhehibi, M.; Mhamed, H. C.; Gharbi, M. Conservation Agriculture Has No Significant Impact on Sheep Digestive Parasitism. Preprints 2023, 2023050795. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0795.v1
ElHamdi, S.; Sassi, L.; Rekik, M.; Dhehibi, M.; Mhamed, H. C.; Gharbi, M. Conservation Agriculture Has No Significant Impact on Sheep Digestive Parasitism. Preprints2023, 2023050795. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0795.v1
APA Style
ElHamdi, S., Sassi, L., Rekik, M., Dhehibi, M., Mhamed, H. C., & Gharbi, M. (2023). Conservation Agriculture Has No Significant Impact on Sheep Digestive Parasitism. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0795.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
ElHamdi, S., Hatem Cheikh Mhamed and Mohamed Gharbi. 2023 "Conservation Agriculture Has No Significant Impact on Sheep Digestive Parasitism" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0795.v1
Abstract
Conservation agriculture (CONS A) is a sustainable agriculture system which is based on rota-tion crops with no tillage. It has various environmental advantages compared to conventional agriculture (CONV A), namely decrease water evaporation, erosion and CO2 emission.
We report herein the first study aiming evaluation of the impact of this type of sustainable agri-culture on sheep gastrointestinal parasites. Two lamb groups aged between 6 and ten months were randomly included to graze separately on CONS A and CONV A pastures. Each group was constituted of two batches of three lambs which were followed up for two rearing months during which liveweight, haematological parameters variation and digestive parasites were studied. At the end of the study period, lambs were slaughtered and the carcass yield was determined and a helminthological autopsy was performed on digestive tracts to estimate different parasitological indicators.
There was no difference between lambs rearing on CONS A and those rearing on CONV A for all parasite indicators (infestation intensity, abundance and prevalence), the same trend was also obtained for haematological parameters, liveweight evolution and carcass yield.
These results prove that there is no impact of the CONS A on the sheep digestive parasitism. Further studies are needed to support these findings on a bigger animal samples and to investigate the impact of this agriculture on other parasites and for other animal species.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.