Digestive parasitism in the traditional cattle breeding systems in the French West Indies. I. General researches

Abstract

Within the framework of a study made on the traditional cattle breeding systems in Guadeloupe (French West Indies), various experiments have been carried out in order to show the importance and the level of digestive parasitoses. Two series of feces samples (278 and 299) have been taken at the end of the dry season and the end of the rainy season. Factors regarding the animals (age, sex, race...) and the environment (geographical area, season, and management techniques) have been taken into consideration for the analysis of the results. The coprological analyses are essentially quantitative; the collected epidemiologic data processing have been carried out through multidimensional test methods. Results show that the digestive parasitism level in these types of bovines (dominated by strongylosis) is comparatively low. Factors linked to the animals are quite important considering factors regarding environment; the animals age (with sex and their physiological status) is the main explanatory variable. As a conclusion, the research put the stress on two main factors. The struggle against digestive parasitism will have to be essentially directed towards “highly-risked”, animals: under one year old, mi1king cows, and fattening males. The problems raised by digestive parasitism within these cattle breeding systems remain trivial compared to problems related to feeding, reproduction and genetic improvement of the livestock.