Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Nov 9;13(1):326.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-017-1248-4.

The nutritional status affects the complete blood count of goats experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus

S Cériac  1 , C Jayles  2 , R Arquet  2 , D Feuillet  1 , Y Félicité  1 , H Archimède  1 , J-C Bambou  3
Affiliations

The nutritional status affects the complete blood count of goats experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus

S Cériac et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) remains the most important pathogenic constraint of small ruminant production worldwide. The improvement of the host immune response against GIN though breeding for improved animal resistance, vaccination and nutritional supplementation appear as very promising methods. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of four nutritional status differing in protein and energy levels (Hay: 5.1 MJ/Kg of dry matter (DM) and 7.6% of crude protein (CP), Ban: 8.3 MJ/Kg of DM and 7.5% of CP, Soy: 7.6 MJ/Kg of DM and 17.3% of CP, BS: 12.7 MJ/Kg of DM and 7.4% of CP) on the haematological disturbances due to Haemonchus contortus infection in Creole kid goats.

Results: No significant effect of the nutritional status was observed for faecal egg count (FEC) but the experimental infection induced haematological disturbances whose intensity and lengthening were dependent on the nutritional status. A transient marked regenerative macrocytic hypochromic anaemia as revealed by a decrease of packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cells (RBC) and hemoglobin and an increase of reticulocytes was observed in all infected groups except Hay. In this latter, the anaemia settled until the end of the experiment. Furthermore, H. contortus induced a thrombocytopenia significantly more pronounced in the group under the lowest nutritional status in term of protein (Hay and Ban). A principal component analysis revealed that the variables that discriminated the nutritional status were the average daily gain (ADG) and the PCV, considered as measures of the level of resilience to H. contortus infection. Moreover, the variables that discriminated infected and non-infected animals were mostly related to the biology of RBC (i.e. size and hemoglobin content) and they were correlated with FEC.

Conclusions: The severity and the lengthening of the regenerative anaemia and the thrombocytopenia induced by H. contortus have been affected by the nutritional status. The protein enriched diets induced resilience to the infection rather than resistance. This suggests that resilience is associated with an improved regenerative capacity of the bone marrow. However, this needs to be further investigated to understand the relationships between resistance, resilience and dietary supplementation.

Keywords: Blood cells; Gastrointestinal nematode; Goats; Nutrition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All animal care, handling techniques, procedures as well as license for experimental infection and blood sampling were approved by the current law on animal experimentation and ethics (HC-69-2014-1 from the Animal Care and Use Committee of French West Indies and Guyana), according to the certificate number A-971–18-02 of authorization to experiment on living animals issued by the French Ministry of Agriculture, before the initiation of the experiment.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Least square means of Faecal egg counts (FEC) according to the nutritional status: Ban: Banana (•, Infected and gray circle, Non-Infected); Hay (■, Infected and gray square, Non-Infected); Soy: Soybean Meal (▲, Infected and gray triangle, Non-Infected); BS: Soybean Meal + Banana (♦, Infected and gray diamond, Non-Infected)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Means and standard errors of Average Daily Gain (ADG) according to the nutritional and the infection status
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Least square means of haematological parameters according to the nutritional and the infection status: Ban: Banana (•, Infected and gray circle, Non-Infected); Hay (■, Infected and gray square, Non-Infected); Soy: Soybean Meal (▲, Infected and gray triangle, Non-Infected); BS: Soybean Meal + Banana (♦, Infected and gray diamond, Non-Infected)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Least square means of blood immune cells according to the nutritional and the infection status: Ban: Banana (•, Infected and gray circle, Non-Infected); Hay (■, Infected and gray square, Non-Infected); Soy: Soybean Meal (▲, Infected and gray triangle, Non-Infected); BS: Soybean Meal + Banana (♦, Infected and gray diamond, Non-Infected)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Principal component analysis of the haematological, parasitological and zootechnical parameters. a Mapping of the parameters and (b) Representation of the animals according to the dietary (Ban: Banana; Hay; Soy: Soybean Meal; BS: Soybean Meal + Banana) and the infection (I: experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus; NI: Non-infected) status from 28 until 49 days post-infection on two-dimensional scatter plot. FEC: Faecal egg counts; MCV: Mean Cell Volume; ADG: Average Daily Gain; PCV: Packed Cell Volume; RBC: Red Blood Cells; Hgb: Hemoglobin; MCH: Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin; MCHC: Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bishop SC, Morris CA. Genetics of disease resistance in sheep and goats. Small Rumin Res. 2007;70(1):48–59. doi: 10.1016/j.smallrumres.2007.01.006. - DOI
    1. Papadopoulos E. Anthelmintic resistance in sheep nematodes. Small Rumin Res. 2008;76(1–2):99–103. doi: 10.1016/j.smallrumres.2007.12.012. - DOI
    1. Beynon SA. Potential environmental consequences of administration of anthelmintics to sheep. Vet Parasitol. 2012;189(1):113–124. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2012.03.040. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baker RL, Gray GD. Worm control for small ruminants in tropical Asia. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) 2003;Monograph 113:63–95.
    1. van Wyk JA, Bath GF. The FAMACHA((c)) system for managing haemonchosis in sheep and goats by clinically identifying individual animals for treatment. Vet Res. 2002;33(5):509–529. doi: 10.1051/vetres:2002036. - DOI - PubMed

Substances