TEMPLATE 3: Module Template

Module No. & Title Module 3: Health Care Management in Ruminant

Animals

Module Overview Health care is the management of the well-being of animals

to ensure normal metabolic and physiological processes in its
system. It includes the proper management of nutrient
requirement of the animals. Any situation where by an animal
deviates from the normal functioning system is referred to as a
disease condition. The abnormal or change in the physiological
system is often brought about by micro-organisms called
pathogens.

Module
Objectives/Outcome After the completion of this module, you will be able to:
s
 Discuss the different nutrient requirement of the
ruminant animals

 Identify the different feed materials used in feeding

ruminants

 Explain the effect of diseases on the production

capacity of ruminants

 Identify the internal and external parasites that

affects the health of ruminant animal
Lessons in the Lesson 1: Nutrient Requirements and Feeding of
module Ruminants
Lesson 2: Feeding Materials for Ruminant Animals
Lesson 3: Diseases of Ruminant Animals and their
Preventive Measures
Lesson 4: Internal and External Parasites of Ruminant
Animals and their Preventive Measures
Module No. and Module 3: Health Care Management in Ruminant
Title Animals

Lesson No. and Lesson 1: Nutrient Requirements and Feeding of

Title Ruminants

Learning
Outcomes By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

 Discuss the different nutrient requirement for large

ruminants
 Discuss the different nutrient requirement for Small
ruminants

Time Frame
Introduction All animals have dietary nutrient levels at which they exhibit
optimal performance either for production or maintenance. This
is what is referred to at the nutrient requirement of the animal and
it is a function of age, type of animal size of animal and
production. All the nutrients namely, energy, protein, fat/lipid,
vitamins, minerals and water have specific functions in the
animal. Of all the mentioned nutrients, two are of utmost
importance they constitute the bulk. These are energy and protein
which will be discussed in more details more than the others in
this unit.

Activity
Formulate your own mineral block (UMMB) using any
available ingredients in the market.

Note:

1. List all the methods or the steps by steps procedure in

 making your mineral block.
2. Discuss in at least 3-5 sentences the advantages of
making mineral block.
3. Site any reference as your basis of your formulation.

Analysis 1. Why is the nutrient requirement for dairy animal higher

than that of beef cattle?

Abstraction Energy and Protein Requirement for Cattle

There are two types of cattle namely beef and dairy cattle.
Energy and protein are needed by the animal for such activities as
physical, metabolic, and physiological or for maintenance. For
beef production, in addition to maintenance, the animal require
energy to deposit flesh whereas dairy cattle require more energy
for pregnancy and production of milk.

A mature cow with an average weight of about 300 to 400

kg will require about 150 to 250 g digestible crude protein (DCP)
on daily basis. It will also require 6 to 11 Mcal (mega calorie) of
metabolizable energy (ME) for maintenance. If the cow is
lactating, it will require an additional 40 to 45 g of DCP and
about 1.2 – 1.3 Mcal. of metabolizable energy. For pregnancy,
the same cow will require about 290 g DCP and 12. 4 Mcal. ME.
Generally, cow must not be fed less than 2.5 – 3% of dry matter
content of their body weight. The term mentioned like DCP and
ME will be discussed further in Animal Nutrition subject.

Energy and Protein Requirement of Sheep

The nutrient requirement in sheep and goat appear very

similar except for dairy goats and sheep kept for wool. Sheep and
goat consume 3 - 5% dry matter of their body weight per day. A
growing lamb of 5 to 40 kg live weight, will consume dry matter
about 3 to 4% of the body weight.
 Such a lamb will require a daily digestible crude protein of
33 to 67 g digestible crude protein g or 18 to 21.5% of the daily
ration. It will also require about 0.65 to 2.50 Mcal ME. Fatteners
require an average dry matter intake about 5% of their body
weight, about 52 to 80 g of digestible crude protein or 12 -13% of
dry matter intake. They will also require 1.49 – 2.92 Mcal ME.
For the early gestation period (about 15 weeks), the dry matter
intake should not be more than 2.5 to 3% of body weight with
daily crude protein of 49 to 100 g or about 7.5 - 8.2% of the dry
matter intake. In the last six weeks of gestation, the dry matter
intake should be about 3 to 4% of the body weight while the
crude protein requirement at this stage is about 8 – 10% of the
dry matter intake.

Energy and Protein Requirement of Goats

There are different energy and protein needs for growth or

production in goats. Growing kids of goats require about 18 to
21% crude protein and about 2.52 Mcal metabolizable energy.
These requirements decrease as kids grow in body weight. The
crude protein need may be as low as 10% of the dry matter intake
while the energy is 2.16 Mcal ME. The buck will requirement
about 8 – 11% crude protein and about 1.5 – 2.34 Mcal ME. The
pregnant doe will require dry matter intake of about 4% body
weight. It will also need 8 to 10 % crude protein of the dry matter
intake and 2 to 2.50 Mcal ME.

Mineral requirement

Minerals are organic and inorganic compounds that play vital

roles in the metabolic and other physiological development of
animals. They are classified as macro and micro minerals. The
macro minerals include calcium, phosphorous, magnesium,
sodium, potassium and chlorine. Micro minerals are iron, copper,
 cobalt, iodine, zinc, molybdenum, selenium, fluorine, sulphur and
chromium. The requirement of macro minerals are expressed in
gram per day or in percentage whereas the micro ones are in parts
per million (ppm).

Minerals must be adequately supplied to the animal to

prevent mineral deficiency nutritional disease. Calcium and
phosphorous must be well supplied in the cattle, sheep and goats’
ration for bone development and milking. Beef cattle require
about 0.24% calcium and 0.22% phosphorous in their diet. Dairy
cattle will require about 0.28% calcium and 0.25% phosphorous.
Pregnant cattle will require 0.23% calcium and 0.23%
phosphorous. Sheep and goats require 0.23% calcium and 0.23%
phosphorous in their diets. Sources of calcium and phosphorous
in the diets of the ruminants are bone meal, oyster shell and
dicalcium phosphate. Salt is given to ruminant as “salt lick”
either as a form of block or by pouring some little quantity in the
feeding trough to supplement what the animal must have taken
from other feed ingredients.

Application Briefly discuss the importance of proper supplementation

of nutrient requirement in ruminant animals.

Closure Congratulations: you just have finished the lesson 1. You

may now proceed to lesson 2.
Module No. and Module 3: Health Care Management in Ruminant
Title Animals

Lesson No. and Lesson 2: Feeding Materials for Ruminant Animals

Title
Learning
Outcomes By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

 Classify the different feed materials used in feeding

ruminants

 Define what is a pasture

 Enumerate the grazing systems

Introduction Feed is an important component of livestock production. The

feed and feeding practices employed in farm animal production is
one of the determining factors for the profitability of the venture.
It is important to know the nutrient need of the animal, the type
of feed or meal mixture that will adequately meet the
requirements for maintenance and production purposes.

Activity Silage Making

Make your fermented silage using any available pasture grasses

in your area.

Note:

1. List all the methods or the steps by steps procedure in

making silage
 2. Discuss in at least 3-5 sentences the advantages of
making Silage.
3. Site any reference as your basis of your formulation.

1. In your own idea, is there a need to formulate a good

Analysis silage or haylage in your area? Why or why not?

Abstraction Feed Materials Used in Ruminant Feeding

Roughages form the main component of ruminant feed.

Roughages are bulky feeds containing high crude fibre content
usually above 18% and less than 60% total digestible nutrient.
Roughages are made up of grasses and legumes or products made
from these two. There are two types of roughages based on their
moisture content, namely dry roughages and succulent roughages
Fresh grasses, legumes and some browse plants and fodders such
as silage constitutes the succulent roughage while hay and other
dry standing grass (standing hay) or straw are the dry roughages.

Dry Roughages

Dry roughage has 10 to15% moisture. These include hay, dry

standing grass (standing hay) and straw. Hay is made by cutting
the grass or legume while fresh and is sun dried or cured, baled
and kept in the feed store for dry season or stall feeding.

Succulent Roughages

These are grasses or legumes or browse plants containing

above 60% moisture. They can be cut and fed or grazed.
Examples of grasses used as pasture are Guinea grass (Panicum
maximum), Gamba grass (Andropogon spp), Elephant grass
(Pennisetum purpureum), Giant star grass (Cynodon, spp) etc.
Examples of legumes are Centrosema pubescens, Calopogonium
Spp, mucuna Spp, Pueraria phaseolorides, Lucerne etc while the
following are example of the browse plant, Gliricidia Sepium,
Leucena leucocephalia, Acacia tortilis etc. Plants like elephant
grass and maize are used to prepare silage. Grasses or legumes
are also planted as pasture, fenced and grazed by ruminant.

Pasture

Pasture can be established by planting some of the earlier

mentioned grasses or legumes. It is a piece of land which
naturally have grasses or legumes growing on it or planted on it.
If it is a natural one it is called natural grassland or if seeded it is
called artificial pasture. It may be fenced or otherwise. If grass
and legume are planted together they are called mixed pasture
and if only one type of pasture is found, it is called sole pasture.
Pastures can be managed by application of fertilizer and weeding.
It can also be renovated by burning to allow new young green
lush pasture to come up or the whole pasture ploughed into the
soil so that new ones are allowed to grow in place of the old.

Grazing Systems

Ruminants are often grazed on pasture where there is

facility for it especially during the rainy season when the
grasses/legumes grow luxuriously. At this stage, it can form the
sole diet for beef cattle with little supplementation in form of
concentrate in case of dairy. Where fenced, the pasture could be
partitioned or divided into paddocks to facilitate good grazing
management. The grazing system used include, continuous
grazing, rotational grazing and strip grazing systems. Continuous
grazing is an uninterrupted type of grazing system. It has the
disadvantage of the pasture being depleted due to overgrazing
and a major advantage of little or no need for fencing thereby
lowering cost.

Rotational grazing from the name implies rotating the

animal on fenced pastures. It is an effective grazing management
carrying capacity is controlled and persistency of the pasture. It is
also good for the control of parasites and other diseases. Strip
grazing is restricting the animal to a section of the pasture usually
with electric fence. It has an advantage of increased utilisation of
the pasture.
Pasture Conservation

During the rainy season, there is usually an abundance in the

supply or availability of fodder i.e. grasses and legumes.
Therefore, conservation methods for fodder have been developed
over the years to feed ruminants during the dry season. Fodders
may be conserved in form of hay, silage, and haylage. These
shall be briefly discussed as below;

Hay

Hay is a green grass, legume or any fodder crop of about 80

to 85% dry matter content, harvested, chopped and allowed to
dry or cure on the field to 15 to 20% moisture content. The
fodder or grass to be used must be harvested in the morning when
the weather condition is good i.e. no rain and bright sunshine.
The leaves must not be allowed to shatter or rain allowed on it to
prevent leaching of the nutrients in the leaves. It must be turned
regularly on the field to prevent browning. It is later packed after
about two or three days drying on the field, baled using a hay
baler and stored for later use especially during the dry or winter
season. Hay must be stored in a well- ventilated store that will
prevent the growth of moulds or fungi. Hay infested with fungi or
moulds are definitely not good as feed for ruminants.

Silage

Silage is made from fodder crops (of about 30 – 35% dry

matter) through controlled fermentation to retain its high
moisture. Silage making or ensilage involves the cutting and
chopping of forage plants into small pieces and kept in
specialized trenches/container called silo (either a pit or trench).
The pieces are packed air-tight in the silo. If it is not air- tight, it
will grow moulds and fungi. Sometime heavy earth moving
machine like a tractor is run over the mass of the chopped fodder
if in a trench silo to ensure air-tightness. After this, it is covered
with polythene sheets with heavy materials like stones or used
tyres are put on it and left to ferment for a period of about 21 to
28 days.
 Haylage

Grasses and legumes that are cut for hay making with dry matter
range of about 30 to 45% could be ensiled. The product obtained
is called haylage.

Application

Closure Congratulations: you just have finished the lesson 2. You

may now proceed to lesson 3.

Module No. and Module 3: Health Care Management in Ruminant

Title Animals

Lesson No. and Lesson 3: Diseases of Ruminant Animals and Their

Title Preventive Measures

Learning
Outcomes By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

 Explain disease effect on the production capacity of

ruminants

 Explain the symptoms of some common ruminant

diseases.

 Identify some common diseases of ruminant animals

Time Frame
Introduction Proper identification and management of animal diseases
would greatly affect the entire production systems. It helps to
address the diseases properly and provide proper medication.
 In this lesson, we will discuss the different common diseases
in ruminant animals and its symptoms.

Activity Let’s do this!

List some common diseases in ruminant animals by using the

words in the box.

A R M A S T I T I S E F M R E E
G T U B E R C U L O S I S F R W
E G E L T M F S O R E M O U T H
E F O O T R O T V F F F R E R E
D M E A N T H R A X R J G W D S
F O O T A N D M O U C H V K F F
V G B H E G O A T P O X W V R W
R T B R U C E L C O S I S T G W
R S A E D V D L C O S I S T D E

Analysis 1. Why is it very important to properly identify the diseases

in ruminant animals?

Abstraction Infectious Disease of Cattle

Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia (CBPP)

This is a disease that infects the lungs of cattle. It is caused by

Mycoplasma mycoides. It is very prevalent in the West African
region and other arid and semi-arid zones. The symptoms of the
disease include rapid and laboured breathing associated with
cough, anorexia, fever, dry and hard coat. The infected animal
will be very reluctant to move and often lag behind others. The
animal may die within few days to a week of infection. More
than half of the infected animal may die within this short period.
Survivals are always carriers of the disease. Infection of other
animals is possible through inhalation of the droplets from the
nasal discharge of infected animal.

Treatment of CBPP is very rare and in endemic cases tylosin

may be used. A veterinarian must be invited for this operation.

The disease is controlled by vaccination with attenuated

vaccine given at the tip of the tail. The vaccine can last 12
months. Because the disease is spread by contact and inhalation
of droplets from nasal discharge, the infected animals must be
separated from the others for housing, during mass movement for
feeding and to the market. There must be quarantine programme
for such animals. The disease is also controlled by slaughter
policy.

Haemorhagic Septicaemia

This disease is caused by bacterial infection of Pasteurella

multocida. It is noticed by symptoms such as dullness, fever,
excessive salivation, reluctance to walk, nasal discharge,
difficulty in respiration and oedema around the neck region.
Infected animal dies within two or three days of infection.
Infection is through nasal discharge, salivation and faeces.
Animals can be treated with oxytetracycline if quickly
discovered. It can also be controlled by yearly vaccination.

Brucellosis

The causative agent is Brucella abortus. It has incubation

period of few days to month and infect the uterus and foetal
membrane thereby causing abortion. It is a disease that affect
both man and animals. It can be passed readily from the lactating
animal through its milk or aborted afterbirth. Brucellosis is also
spread through contaminated water, food, skin, eye, and nostril or
by licking the hind-quarter of infected animal by another cattle.

There is no `effective treatment but the animal could be

immunized. Other control measure apart from immunisation is to
completely destroy any herd where it is detected.

Foot and Mouth Disease

It affects cloven footed animals. The symptoms are high

fever, blisters around the mouth, udder, teats, hooves and toes
resulting to lameness. It spread through direct contact with
infected animals or through their manure, forages, water and the
attendants on the farm. It is a viral disease.

There is no effective treatment but once detected in any herd,

the farm must be isolated and the whole stock should be
slaughtered.

Anthrax

It is an acute disease of cattle, sheep, goats and sometimes man.

The causative agent is Bacillus antharacis. It is incubated within
one to two weeks after which may be followed by short illness
characterised by fever, laboured breathing, convulsion and
sudden death. Discharge of thick black blood comes from the
external orifices such as the mouth, nostrils, anus and vulva. If
quickly discovered, anthrax can be treated with the
administration of antibiotics such as penicillin and
oxytetracycline. It can be controlled by burning and burying the
carcass of infected animals.

Veterinarian must be contacted the moment the disease is

detected on the farm.

Tuberculosis

This is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium bovis.

Symptoms include, emaciated body, dry husky cough with the
infection of the lungs. The disease is confirmed by carrying out
the tuberculin test and treated by vaccination.

The disease is transmitted through exhaled air, nasal discharge,

saliva, faeces, urine and milk.

Mastitis

It is a disease caused by Staphylococcus, Streptococcus spp

and Corynebacterium Pyogenes with the inflammation of the
quarters of the udder tissue which becomes at times distended.
The causative agent is excreted in the milk and with time the
milk is tainted with blood and pus. It causes the infected animal
severe pain. The infected tissue becomes fibrous ranging from a
few nodules to extensive hardening. It is often detected by
experience stockman by palpation of the udder and identifying
the hard tissue. In severe cases abscesses or gangrene may
develop in the affected part.

Infected animal is treated by first stripping out the milk by hand,

wash thoroughly the infected quarter and infused with antibiotic.
Repeat regularly for every 12 hours until improvement is noted.
Milk from the animal during this period must be discarded.

Infectious Disease of Sheep and Goats

Contagious Caprine Pleuro-pneumonia (CCPP)

This disease infects the lungs of goats. It is caused by

Mycoplasma strains of bacteria. Symptoms of the disease
include, fever, nasal discharge, laboured breathing with
coughing, pneumonia and inflammation of the chest lining. All
these lead to loss of condition. Other goats are infected by
contact.

CCPP can be treated if quickly diagnosed with tylosin. It can be

controlled by immediate separation of infected animals,
slaughtering and vaccination. Over-crowding must be avoided
especially overnight.

Foot rot

It is a disease found both in cattle, sheep and goats affecting

their feet as in cattle. It is caused by the same causative agent
Fusobacterium necrophorum. Symptoms include inability of the
animal to walk, lameness, at times the animal squat to graze. The
animal may be first noticed with the reddening of the skin
between the toes called “scald”. Infection spread through
contaminated pasture especially during warm wet weather
condition.
 Treatment is embarked upon by first trimming the hooves and
inserting the toes in bactericides e.g. 10% zinc or copper sulphate
solution with or without detergent. It can be controlled by the use
of foot bath.

Orf or Sore mouth

This is a viral infection of the skin and mucous membranes of

sheep and goats. It starts with lesions that are wart-like clusters
on the skin around the feet, teats of udder, and the mouth. They
develop as ulcer in the vulva. Infection is spread through suckling
by the young ones. The effect of non-suckling by the young
animal may cause mastitis in the dam.

It can be treated by injection of antibiotics. Standard sanitary

procedure most be employed on the farm as control measure.
Infected animal must be separated immediately.

Sheep and Goat Pox

It is a viral infection with lesions on the skin and internal

organs of the infected animal. In addition to the above, symptoms
include, fever, discharge from the nose and eye, red spot over the
skin, lining of the mouth, nose and the vulva. The animal gets
irritated and rubs its body. It leads to abortion in some animals.

There is no treatment but can be controlled by strict

observance of hygiene and at times vaccination.

General Diseases

Bloat

This is a disease that shows with the distension of the rumen

as a result of it being filled with gas. It appears at the left hand
side of the abdomen behind the ribs and become swollen with a
stretched skin coat that gives a sound when tapped with hands
 like a drum. It is characterised with distressed posture at times
with bleating, difficult breathing and the animal may die instantly
if unattended to. It is mostly caused by feeding of wet forage.

It implies from the above that to control or prevent bloat, the

animal must not be given wet fresh forage rather it should be
wilted. It can be treated if quickly diagnosed (because
inexperience stockman may not be able to notice this) by
drenching with vegetable oils or any anti-foaming agent e.g soya
oil, palm oil, etc.

Application Conduct a survey in your locality and identify some common

diseases in ruminants encountered by your local farmer/s.
Discuss how do they managed those problems.

Closure Congratulations: you just have finished the lesson 3. You

may now proceed to lesson 4.

Module No. and Module 3: Health Care Management in Ruminant

Title Animals

Lesson No. and Lesson 4: Internal and External Parasites of Ruminant

Title Animals and their Preventive Measures
Learning
Outcomes By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

 Identify the common parasites of ruminant animals

 Discuss the life cycle of these parasites, and;

 Discuss its preventive measures

Time Frame One week

Introduction
 A parasite is a living organism that depends upon a living
host for survival. It lives either inside or outside the host and
thereby causes discomfort or inefficiency in the productive life of
the host. Those that live inside the host are called internal
parasite and those outside are referred to as external parasites.

Activity

Analysis 1. Why is it very important to properly identify the Parasites

in ruminant animals?

Abstraction Internal Parasites

Most of the internal parasites are either worms or flukes which

are collectively referred to as helminths. They live in the lungs,
liver, stomach and the intestines of animals.

Roundworms

Roundworms found in the gastro-intestinal tracts are called

nematodes. The organism that causes the most offensive damage
is Haemonchus contortus or twisted worm. Others include
Ostertagia (brown stomach worm), Trichostrongylus asei and
Trichostrongylus vitrinus. They vary in their sizes from tiny
thread-like structure of about 5 mm long to over 300 mm.

The life cycle of round worm is shown in Fig. below. The

worms mate and lay eggs inside the abomasum of the ruminants
which are expelled along with the dungs. They hatch and develop
to the larva stage on the pasture where they are picked up by
grazing animals. The larva cannot survive harsh and dry weather
but thrive well in moist and warm weather even up to two years.
They develop to mature roundworm within twenty-one days from
the time the egg was laid.
 The life cycle of round worms
Source: google images

In the intestine, the worms damage the inner lining so that

blood, nutrients and water are lost in the faeces or urine.
Infestation of worm is often accompanied by diarrhea,
dehydration and loss of appetite. The implication of this is that
nutrients in the feed will be poorly utilised for growth and
production purpose.

Worms are often controlled by developing programmes that

will match the seasonal occurrence. Routine drenching with
chemicals such as benzimidazole, levamisole and
organophosphate is necessary. The herd should be de-wormed
about 6 to 8 weeks after they might have started grazing during
the rainy season and repeated two weeks after. This action is
repeated shortly before late rains and the onset of the dry season.
The herd must not be allowed to graze infested pasture.

Lungworms

Lungworm is caused by Dictyocaulus filaria or Dictyocaulus

viviparus. They infect the lungs of the animal causing a
considerable damage to them and the bronchial tube which leads
to coughing. The symptoms are irregular breathing, coughing
associated with worms and blood-stained discharge being
expelled from the mouth. The infected animal tends to stand in
distress on pasture and take little or no interest in grazing. There
is also loss of body condition.

The life cycle of lungworm is shown in Fig. below. The adult

lay eggs in the air passages of the lungs where they live. The
eggs are coughed up into the back of the throat and swallowed.
The eggs then passed through the alimentary canal of the animal
and hatched into immature larvae which are expelled along with
the dungs on to the pasture. Animals that are grazing easily pick
up the larva, pass them down through the alimentary canal where
they infest the walls and find their ways into the blood vessels.
They are subsequently carried to the heart and the lungs. On
getting to the lungs, they bore through the tissues of the tiny air
space causing a lot of damage. They are at this stage capable of
laying eggs which are coughed out to the back of the throat and
the cycle is restarted.
 Source: google images

Lungworms are controlled by the use of appropriate

anthelmintics as may be advised by the veterinarian. However,
the use of live oral vaccine as a routine immunisation before
turning the animals to pasture have been reported in Northern
Europe only. This is very important for young animals like
calves.

Tapeworms

Tapeworms (gestoda) belongs to the phylum platyhelminthes

and are related to the flukes (trematodes). They have segmented
bodies that are tape-like and also host specific. They infect both
animals and human. The adult tapeworm cause fewer problems
especially in animals under poor plane of nutrition. They are also
non-pathogenic. However, the larva of some specie travel to the
brain or the spinal cord and cause nervous disorder called
coenurosis.

The life cycle of tapeworm is shown in below. When a dog

eats the carcass of infected sheep or ruminants, the cysts develop
into tapeworm inside the intestine of the dog. The matured worm
lay eggs that passed along with the dog’s faeces. Grazing
ruminants pick the eggs while on pasture which hatches and
moves into the blood vessels and eventually found their way to
the brain or the spinal cord. If dog eats carcass of infested
ruminants, the cycle is re-started. For a control measure and to
break the cycle, dogs must not be allowed to eat the carcass of
infested animals. Benzimidazole can be used for treatment.

Liver Fluke

This is one of the most widely distributed and harmful

parasites that affects cattle sheep and goats. They are caused by
Fasciola hepatica or Fasciola gigantica of the trematodes. The
disease symptoms include paleness of the eyelid and the gum,
pot-bellied condition, appearance of soft watery swelling under
the jaw, weakness, anaemia and loss of condition. When carcass
of infested ruminants is posted, the flukes are found in the liver if
opened. It causes a disease called schistosomiasis.

While in the sheep, the adult fluke lay eggs in the bile duct.
The eggs are passed into the intestine and expelled along with the
dung on to the pasture. Here they can stay up six months if it is
on wet environment or they die if on dry land. They hatch into
miracidium (after about nine days to eight weeks) which swims
and flow with streams or brooks or any water in the drains
around. The miracidium is picked up by the water or mud snails
(Limmaea truncatula) and after about seven weeks they develop
and produce another form called cercariae. An average of 1000
cercariae is produced from one miracidium. The cercariae moves
and attach itself to the leaves of the plants or grasses around
where grazing ruminants pick them up in the encysted form.
They migrate into the liver of the animal via the blood vessels
and develop into liver fluke after about six weeks. The flukes
begin to lay eggs after another six weeks in the ruminant host
which are again expelled along with the dungs and the cycle
continues below.

Liver fluke is treated with benzimidazole and salicylanilides.

It controlled by the elimination of the intermediate host- mud
snail. This is achieved by spraying the streams, brooks and every
drain around the grazing pasture regularly during the wet season.

External Parasites of Ruminant Animals

Ticks

Ticks are Acarines of high importance as skin parasites. There

are two types of ticks namely, hard ticks and soft ticks. The hard
ticks are oval in shape, flattened from top to bottom, with a hard
protective dorsal surface (scutum) and an anteriorly projecting
mouth part. Soft tick does not have the hard protective dorsal
surface. Ticks are vectors of some diseases such as anaplasmosis
or gall sickness and heartwater disease.

The hard tick has about three species depending on the

number of host. There is the one-host tick, two-host tick and
three-host tick. Ticks spend only a short period on their host
sucking blood and several days to three weeks are spent on
pastures or in the sand where they can be easily attached to
unsuspecting host in this case ruminants and even man.

Ticks are treated by the application of acaricides through

spraying or dip bath. Pour-on preparation can also be used. Ticks
can be controlled by denying host animals to be on the pasture.
The pasture can also be burnt. However, all these are possible in
intensive rearing of ruminants or where there is a good control of
the animals that graze in the environment.

Lice

These are small, flat wingless insects that irritate the body of
the ruminants so much that they rub their bodies against solid
objects. They live and burrow in the hair and wool of the skin of
the animal. They are visible even to the naked eye as roaming
tiny objects on the skin when the hair or the wool is parted by
hand. There are two types of lice. These are sucking lice and
biting or chewing lice. The adult lice live for about one month on
the skin of the animal. The female lays about 300 eggs which
hatch within three weeks into nymph. Infested animals constantly
get irritated, emaciated, look pale, anaemic and show consistent
hitching or rubbing of their body against solid object and thereby
damage their skin.

Lice infestation is treated by dip bath, spraying or rubbing of

chemicals like permethrin or malathion or by injecting with
ivomec. It can be controlled by preventing overcrowding.

Mites or Mange

Mites belong to the Acarines and cause skin disease called

mange. They are so small that they are not visible by the naked
eye. They also live all their lives on the host. Psoroptes and
Chorioptes spp of mites are the supeficial burrowing type in the
skin while the Demdex and Sarcoptes spp burrow deeper into the
skin. Symptoms of mange include irritation, scratching, biting,
rough peeling skin, and loss of hair on the skin. Treatment is by
spraying, dip bath, injection with ivermectin or ivomec and
rubbing of malathion powder on the skin of the animals.

Flies

Flies are insects that breed during the summer or rainy

months of the year. The flies bite the skin and feed on the wound
of ruminants. Some of the flies transmit secondary disease.

There are different types of flies:

a. Biting flies that bites and suck blood of the host.

b. Myiasis flies are those that lay eggs in the open wounds,
other natural openings and skin of the animal. They invade
and damage the tissue.

c. Blowfly myiasis or blowfly strike is green in colour and

lay their eggs on the skin section soiled with faeces around
the hindquarter. The eggs hatch into larva which crawl to
the skin and gets hooked to it by their mouth hooks. This
gives a larva infested lesions or strike on the animal. This
lesion could very distressful and debilitating causing pains
and at times death of the animal.

Flies are treated and controlled by spraying, dip bath, use of

fly repellants like pour-on etc.

Ringworms

This is a fungal infection of the skin of ruminants and even

man caused by Microsporum or Trichophyton fungi. It is noticed
in animals first by hair loss in a circular form which may be
about 3 – 4 cm in diameter. The hair loss gives way to a greyish
and crusty appearance on the skin of the animal. It affects all ages
of animals especially when housed together with poor ventilation
and sunlight.

Infected animal should be separated and quarantine

programme must be made effective where rampart. It is spread by
direct contact through the spores of the fungi.
Application Conduct a survey in your locality and identify some common
parasites in ruminants encountered by your local farmer/s.
Discuss how do they managed those problems.

Closure Congratulations: you already have finished the whole lesson

in module 4. Hope that you are already equip in managing
ruminant animals.