KAFKAS UNIVERSITESI VETERINER FAKULTESI DERGISI, cilt.19, sa.2, ss.263-269, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
The aims of this study were to compare the therapeutic efficacy of ivermectin after subcutaneous, per os and pour-on administration in Saanen goats naturally infected with Trichostrongylidea spp. and to evaluate the efficacy of ivermectin pour-on in Damascus goats with similar gastrointestinal nematodes. After body weighing and faecal sample collection on day 0 (pre-treatment day), 45 Saanen goats were weighed, faecal sampled and allocated on the basis of day -3 faecal egg counts (FEC) to four treatment groups (n=9 in each group). Saanen goats were then treated with a single dose of ivermectin at a dose rate of 0.2 mg/kg by subcutaneous injection or oral administration and 0.5 mg/kg or 1 mg/kg by topical application. Nine Saanen goats were kept as non-medicated control. Fifteen Damascus goats were divided two groups. The first group (n=9) received ivermectin pour-on as a single dose of 0.5 mg/kg and the second group (n= 6) served as a non-medicated control. The efficacy was measured on the basis of the reduction of the egg output and the evaluation of the results from larval differentiation on 14 days post-treatment. In Saneen goats, ivermectin provided equally excellent (100%) therapeutic efficacy after subcutaneous or oral administration whereas ivermectin pour-on treatment at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg reduced pretreatment FEC by 96.5% and 99.9%, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found between 1.0 mg/kg of ivermectin by topical application and the ivermectin subcutaneous and oral treated groups for post treatment FEC whereas the efficacy of ivermectin pour-on at 0.5 mg/kg was significantly lower than that for each of the other 3 treatment groups. In Damascus goat, the therapeutic efficacy of 0.5 mg/kg ivermectin pour-on was recorded as only 30.7%.