Impact of Natural Gastrointestinal Parasitic Infection on Growth Performance and Economics of Production of the Sudan Desert Sheep

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of natural gastrointestinal parasitic infection on growth and economics production of Sudan Desert sheep. Forty-eight naturally infected lambs were divided into 2 groups of 24lambs each. One group was treated for internal parasites while the other was left naturally infected. Each group was then divided into two groups according to age (old two years and young milk teeth) and dietary energy level (high and low). The design ended up with eight groups of 6 individuals each which were The design ended up with eight groups of 6 individuals each which were old treated high energy (OTHE), old infected high energy (OIHE), old treated low energy (OTLE), old infected low energy (OILE), young treated high energy (YTHE),young infected high energy (YIHE), young treated low energy (YTLE) and young infected low energy (YILE). They were then fattened for 60 days during which feedlot performance, mortality rate, purchase prices, sales and margins were calculated. The growth parameters as average daily gain and final body showed significantly (P< 0.001) high differences among treatments. Margin percent of sales of (OTHE) was 23.80% while (OILE) lost 40% of their total cost. Although (YTHE) ranked second in term of performance, but they achieved the best profit which was 5.7% more than the profit of (OTHE) because of less dry matter consumption. The number of sold lambs for (OILE) and (YILE) decreased by 50% due to mortality. Total margin of (OTHE) was 98.08 $, while (OIHE) was sold for 36.36% less profit. The former group gained 82.81% more profit than (OTLE). Although older treated lambs gained more weight than younger ones but economically younger lambs were more profitable. Total sales revenue of (OTHE) was 510 $ with 19.2% total margin, while the total sales revenue of (YTHE) was 480 $ achieving 24.9% total margin.