Fungal chitosan on gastrointestinal nematodes larvae of goats

Abstract

The goat is represented by a very considerable effective in the Northeastern Brazil, but infections caused by nematodes and the serious problem of parasitic resistance have become barriers to breed these animals. Alternatively, the control with bioproducts comes as a sustainable and viable solution to help breeding in this region. In this context, the present study evaluated the performance of fungal chitosan on the larval development of gastrointestinal nematodes in naturally infected goat samples. Therefore, the selection was performed at five properties. The positive herd was confirmed, and coprocultures were performed with chitosan solution 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%, with each treatment performed in 5 replicates. The third-stage larvae (L3) were recovered and one hundred larvae/treatment were counted and identified. The identified genera were Haemonchus, Strongyloides, Oesophagostomum and Trichostrongylus. In the analysis of inhibition of larval development, the concentration of 1.0% prevented the development of larval Haemonchus by 35%, but the results were not statistically significant. Thus, it is suggested to seek new concentrations of fungal chitosan as anthelmintic, since it appears as a promising alternative to sustainable control of these endoparasites.