Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Crossbred Sheep Diagnosed at Different Altitudes in the Highland Boyacá-Colombia

Abstract

Gastrointestinal parasitosis is one of the problems that most affect sheep production systems worldwide, the geographical distribution of parasites is varied even in the same region, so the determination of their epidemiology is an important factor for the implementation of programs to manage these diseases. The objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of sheep in grazing, of three different age groups in three geographical regions of Boyacá and if there are statistically significant differences between each prevalence using the chi² test. Through a randomized descriptive cross-sectional study, animals were selected in three different municipalities of Boyacá. The parasitic load was determined through the MacMaster technique and the differentiation of genus and species of parasites was carried out through fecal matter culture. No statistically significant differences were found between the prevalence of some parasites in the majority of age and geographic groups. The parasite Haemonchus contortus was determined in almost all age groups regardless of geographical differences. The parasitic dynamics found in the department of Boyacá show that although there are differences between the altitude of the farms evaluated, parasites of epidemiological relevance such as Haemonchus contortus have a general distribution