Effects of Mangifera indica leaf hay on weaned lambs before and after a Haemonchus contortus infection

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Mangifera indica leaf hay on the control of Haemonchus contortus in lambs, Sixteen crossbred Santa Inês x Dorper lambs were divided into two homogeneous groups. One group was provisioned with 5g of leaf hay /Kg of body weight (BW) and other was not with the hay of this plant.On the 21st day, the animals of both groups were inoculated with infective larvae from H. contortus. The growth, intake and performance for animals were evaluated before and after the nematode infection. Lamb blood parameters were analyzed before the hay administration (day − 14), when the animals receiving the hay and were not-infected (day 7) and when receiving the hay and were infected with H. contortus (day 30). The faeces were collected on day 42, 44, 46, and 48 of the experiment to quantify the eggs per gram of faeces (EPG). The body weight gain was lower when the animals were infected to both groups. In the second period, the animals fed with the hay of M. indica showed higher feed efficiency than the un-treated group. The eosinophil concentrations were higher in the last two periods evaluated. However, the EPG averages were similar between lamb groups. Thus, the inclusion of hay from M. indica leaves in the lamb feed can lead to an improvement in feed efficiency of the animals infected with H. contortus. It can also increase their eosinophil concentration, which in turn could improve tolerance to the nematode infection.