Semester of Graduation

Fall 2018

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Animal, Dairy, and Poultry Sciences

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) can severely affect the performance of ruminant animals and may lead to an animal’s death in a severe, untreated infection. Zoological parks, which have used anthelmintic drugs for treatment of GIN, are now seeing evidence of drug resistant parasites (Garretson et al., 2009). Duddingtonia flagrans, a nematophagous fungus, has shown a reduction in larvae of coprocultures of exotic ruminants through feed administration at Disney's® Animal Kingdom Lodge (DAKL) and has potential to biologically control forage larvae (Terry, 2013). This study evaluated the effectiveness of Duddingtonia flagrans, administered to exotic ruminant hoofstock at a daily dose of 30,000 chlamydospores per kg of BW with standard feed, on reducing fecal egg count (FEC), larvae development and survival in feces and level of forage larvae availability for December, 2015 – May, 2016 (peak larvae season) at DAKL. Reticulated giraffe, scimitar-horned oryx and roan antelope were kept on control savannah, Sunset (n=8), and treatment savannahs, Arusha (n=6) and Uzima (n=5). Fecal egg counts were monitored throughout the study and individual coprocultures were used to determine in vitro development and survival of larvae. Forage samples were collected every month to survey the larval population available to animals in each savannah. This study showed that D. flagrans did not significantly reduce (P>0.05) FEC over time but showed a steady decreasing trend with treatments. The percent development and survival of larvae in coprocultures were reduced (PHaemonchus contortus, were decreased in savannahs in which animals given the fungus. Duddingtonia flagrans shows potential as an effective means at controlling GIN for animals in zoological captivity.

Date

8-23-2018

Committee Chair

Miller, James

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4793

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