Mouflon sheep have lovely brown colored short haired coat. Typically it is not the wild animal found in Pakistan but a little population of Mouflon sheep is present in Pakistan in the captive vicinities like private zoo and wild life parks .Their population is countable, 150-200 Mouflon sheep are present. They can be parasitized by many nematodes, one of the most important is Haemonchuscontortus. Adult Haemonchuscontortus found in the abomasum of the animal.Female parasite can lay up to 1500 eggs in a day in mid-Summer July- August and those eggs produce the infective stage L3, which after infestation causes heavy blood loss resulting anemia, weight loss, emaciation and sudden death in acute cases compromising the production and propagation losses in Mouflon sheep.
The Mouflon sheep of various private and public Zoo and Wild Life Parks located in area of District Lahore were included in this study. A total of 100 Mouflon sheep were examined coprologically for the presence of Haemonchuscontortus for the present study. It is difficult to restrain the wild animal, a Dort was used for this purpose keeping in view of this problem about 3 gram of sample were collected early in the morning from the freshly passed feces, for this purpose disposable gloves was used on hands,the samples were collected carefully to avoid soil contamination the sample was placed in self-sealing polythene bags and were transferred to the laboratory in ice pack cooler. The samples were stored in refrigerator at 4°C till analysis.
The fecal samples were analyzed for Haemonchuscontortus eggs using direct smear method and floatation technique, while the egg count were performed by McMaster technique at medicine Laboratory University of Veterinary Animal Sciences Lahore the identification of Haemonchuscontortus was made by using standard procedures. Infection rate was calculated by using formula
Infection rate (%) = No. of infected animals (n)/ total No. of sampled animals (N) × 100
The infection rates were calculated in this study and total Thirty (33) animals were found positive after qualitative and quantitative analysis of fecal samples. The infection rate of Haemonchuscontortus in Mouflon sheep were calculated out of sampled animals which resulted the significant (P < 0.05) infection rate in females as well as in male Mouflon sheep. The infection rate in female Mouflon sheep was 33.82 % and in males it was 31.25 % in males out of positive animals. Similarly The infection rate of H. contortus in Lahore Zoo, Safari Park Lahore and Jallo Park was 29.72, 32.50, 39.13 respectively, and the infection rate of H. contortus in age group of 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 was 39.58, 27.27, 26.31 respectively.
For therapeutic trails, a total of 30 animals positive for nematodes having egg per gram between 1000---2000 were divided into 3 groups A, B, and C each group were comprised of 10 animals. The animal of group A was treated with Albendazole at the dose rate of 10 mg per kg of body weight PO; group B was treated with Levamisole at the rate of 7.5 mg per kg of body weight PO whereas the group C was treated with Pyrentelpamoate at the dose rate of 25 gram PO.The fecal sample of all groups were collected at day 0 (pre-treatment) and then at 3rd day 5th, 7th and 12th (post-treatment). The efficacies of these drugs were assessed on the bases of reduction in egg per gram and calculated as per formula of (Iqbal at al. 2013).
Drug efficacy = {(pre-treatment EPG - post-treatment EPG / pre - treatment EPG)} × 100
The chemotherapy of Haemonchuscontortusin Mouflon Sheep were studied in different 3 treatment groups. Microscopically screened out Haemonchuscontortus positive Mouflon sheep were divided in Three (3) treatment groups T 1, T 2 and T 3 and each group contained Ten (10) positive animals. Faecal samples of animals were examined at day 0 pre-treatment and at days 3, 5, 7 and 12 post treatment. All the treatment groups showed a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in eggs per gram (EPG) at 3rd, 5th, 7th and 12th days after treatment. The maximum reduction in EPG %age was 96.1 % showed by T 1 group treated with single dose of Albendazole at 10 mg/kg body weight at day 7 post treatment while the groups T 2 and T 3 showed maximum reduction of 95.52 % and 93.26 % at day 12th post treatment. Hence Albendazole was the best group found against Haemonchuscontortus at day 7 post treatment among the other two groups of drug used.
Data on Infection rate of Haemonchuscontortus was estimated by Pearson’s chi-square test. For significance whereas data on chemotherapy was analyzed by one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS, P< 0.05 were considered significant.