A high incidence of parasitic infections in domestic animals has a big impact on productivity and itleads to severe economic losses. We conducted a preliminary study with the aim of setting out the compositionof gastrointestinal parasite communities in sheep farms in Sicily. In this study the prevalence of parasiticinfections in sheep caused by intestinal parasites was analysed. The study was carried out in adult sheeprandomly chosen from selected farms from January to December 2011. Individual faecal or intestine sampleswere collected and tested. Almost 60% of the tested animals resulted to be positive to parasites. Distribution ofparasites has been related to spatial location of farms and seasonal changes. The herds studied were located atdifferent altitudes and in different climatic conditions. Eradication of gastrointestinal parasites from theenvironment is generally impractical; though, infections can be limited, and control programmes should mainlyminimise the deriving economic losses.
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