Emergence of anthelmintic resistance in an organized sheep farm in Punjab

Anthelmintic resistance against commonly used anthelmintics (ivermectin, levamisole, morantel and fenbendazole) was studied in naturally occurring gastrointestinal (GI) nematodes in adult sheep of Government Sheep Breeding Farm at Mattewara in district Ludhiana (punjab). After qualitative and quantitative screening of faeces of 100 sheep, fifty sheep having eggs per gram of faeces (EPG) > 500 were randomly selected and divided into five equal groups. Ivermectin @ 200 Jlg/kg body weight and levamisole @ 7.5 mg/kg body weight, injected subcutaneously, in two different groups, were 93.53 and 90.65 per cent effective, respectively. Whereas, fenbendazole @ 7.5 mg/kg body weight and morantel citrate @ 6.0 mg/kg body weight, orally was 84.17 and 80.58 per cent effective and the fifth group was kept as untreated control with natural exposure to gastrointestinal nematodes. Hence, multiple resistance against all the four class of anthelmintics used was recorded from sheep against GI nematodes.