Parasitofauna of the gastrointestinal tract of sheep
Authors: Antipov A. , Melnychuk V. , Papchenko I. , Goncharenko V. , Mazanniy O. , Solovyova L. 
Published: February 2024

Today, small cattle, especially sheep, are bred onall continents, with the exception of Antarctica. This isdue to the high adaptability and vitality of sheep to various negative factors of the external environment, notbeing picky about feed with the use of mainly naturalpastures and providing people with food products.Along with the positive aspects of sheep breeding,there were also negative ones: diseases of non-contagious, infectious and parasitic etiology, which requiredclarification of the causes of the disease, pathogens andtheir properties, methods of treatment and prevention.The analysis of literary sources indicates that thebasis of predicting the ill health of sheep in relation todiseases of parasitic etiology is the research and studyof the species composition of helminths.As a result of ovoscopic studies of feces fromsheep, which were carried out on the farm, we established a significant spread of parasitosis of the alimentary canal.During the study of 846 heads of sheep, 457heads were affected by parasitosis (EI was 54.02%) atthe intensity of 9 to 2786 eggs or oocysts/g of feces.There were 389 sheep free from parasitosis, which was45.98%.According to the morphological features of theeggs and oocysts isolated from the feces of sick animals, gray-colored, oval-shaped eggs with a smoothshell, immature, were found. This structure is characteristic of eggs of the strongylid type, they belonged toparasites of the Strongylida order. In addition, brown,barrel-shaped eggs with corks at the poles were found.This structure of eggs is typical for eggs of trichuris,which belong to the order of Trichurida. Eggs of strongyloides of the species Strongyloides papillosus, whichbelong to the suborder Rhabditata, namely, they weresmall, oval, round or asymmetric with a thin smoothshell, gray in color, with a formed larva. In additionto helminth eggs, we also found oocysts of protozoabelonging to the Sossidiida order.We have registered that most often (39.39%) causative agents of strongylatosis of the alimentary canalwere registered in farm sheep, to a somewhat lesserextent: causative agents of trichurosis (28.88%) andstrongyloidosis (21.44%), and the least affected by oocysts of protozoa was noted (10.29 %).Helmintoovoscopic studies showed that parasitosis of the alimentary canal of sheep in farm conditionsoccurred both as part of mixed infestations (60.16%)and as monoinfestations (39.84%).In the conditions of the farm, sheep are more affected by causative agents of strongyloidiasis of thealimentary canal are 55.10%. Strongyloides (20.41 %),Trichuris (18.37 %) and Eimeria oocysts (6.12 %) werethe least affected sheep. In sheep, the associated courseof parasitosis of the digestive tract was most often registered. Thus, two- and three-component mixed infections were observed in 63.40 and 35.29%, respectively.To a lesser extent (1.31%) combinations of parasitosiswith four types of parasites were registered. Of the two-component associations, we registered6 types of combinations. The most common was theassociation of parasites, which is represented by pathogens of strongylates and trichuris, which accounted for51.55% of the total number of patients with two-component association).Three-component associations of parasites wererecorded to a lesser extent (54 cases from the totalnumber of patients). 3 types of combinations of pathogens were recorded. The highest percentage of affectedanimals was in the combination of Strongylates+Trichuris+Strongyloides and it was 61.11%.
Key words: strongyloides, nematodes, strongylatosis, Eimeria oocysts, extensiveness of invasion, intensity of invasion, sheep, monoinvasion, poly invasion.