EFFECT OF GRAZING INTENSITY ON THE DAILY WEIGHT GAIN AND PARASITIC INFESTATION IN SHEEP

• Grant number: 11/16576-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: February 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Pastures and Forage Crops
• Principal Investigator: Ana Cláudia Ruggieri
• Grantee: Daniela Barbara Santana
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project will be carried out at the forage sector of Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences - UNESP, Jaboticabal, SP, to evaluate and compare the helminth gastrointestinal infection in lambs and the grass infestation Tifton-85 (Cynodon spp) during the rainy season, according to the grazing intensities defined by residual leaf area index (RLAI). The treatments will consist of a 4x2 factorial scheme, with four RLAI (0.8, 1.4, 2.0, 2.6) of pasture and two levels of supplementation to the animals (non-supplemented animals and animals that receive 0.7 % of body weight with energetic supplement), which will be grazing together on the same paddocks under each RLAI. The lambs that will be used are without defined race, non-castrated males, with average starting weigth of 25kg. The animals will be kept under grazing during the day about 10 hours on rotational grazing, until they reach their pre-established RLAI. The forage samples will be collected at the entry when the canopy reaches 95% of light interception (LI) and will also be collected at the exit when reaches their RLAI respective. The data will be submitted to variance analysis to be performed by the statistical program SAS (1996) whose model includes the effects of treatment (plots), grazing cycle (subplots) and the interaction treatment x grazing cycle. The F test at 5% significance will be used by the procedure MIXED (mixed models).