Abstract

Management techniques that can assist in treating only parasite infested animals can reduce anthelmintic resistance arousing from frequent dosing of all animals. This study aimed to investigate the application of FAMACHA^© with no formal training of resource-poor farmers to identify anaemic or helminthes infested animals. Two sites (KwaMthethwa (KM) village and Owen Sitole College of Agriculture (OSCA) farm) with 40 animals each of mixed sex were used in this study. The animals grazed on natural pasture during the day and housed in Kraal at night.  FAMACHA^© chart scored animals on eye colour; 1 (Red, non-anaemic and acceptable), 2 (red-pink, non-anaemic and border line), 3 (pink, mildly anaemic and dangerous), 4 (pink-white, anaemic and fatal) or 5 (porcelain white, severely)). Eye scoring was over four seasons (autumn, winter, spring and summer) alongside faecal egg count (FEC) as a positive control to FAMACHA^© diagnosis method. Anaemic animals varied (P<0.05) between the sites, 76.72, 40.34 and 49.37% for KM, OSCA and KM+OSCA, respectively. Comparison of FAMACHA^© with FEC showed that only 61.53, 33.5 and 40.12% of the animals were anaemic at KM, OSCA and KM+OSCA, respectively, due to false positive results. Spring, autumn and summer were identified as seasons for frequent monitoring due to higher (P<0.05) gastrointestinal parasite especially Trichostrongylus axei and Moniezia expansa. Approximately 80% of all anaemic animals were identified by no skilled resource-poor farmers using FAMACHA^©. This reinforces the economic (cheap) importance and reliability of FAMACHA^© chart in parasite resistance management but emphasized on formal training as 20% false negative anemic animals is a lot for a resource-poor farmers.

Key words: FAMACHA^©, Anthelmintic, resistance, faecal egg count, Nguni goat.