A SWISS RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT VETERINA RY PROJECT IN THE GAMBIA - THE LIVESTOCK OWNERS POINT-OF-VIEW ON PROPHYLACTIC ANTHELMINTIC TREATMENT IN LIVESTOCK

The epidemiology of nematodes in livestock in The Gambia was assessed. A prophylactic biannual treatment was then tested on cattle and sheep . This treatment resulted in a significant improvement in the reproduc tive performances (sheep: lambings/year increasing from 1.04 to 1.22 a nd lambs/lambing increasing from 1.11 to 1.19; cattle: age at first ca lving decreasing from 58 to 50 months) and, in cattle, a significant i mprovement of the weight (varying between 8% and 17% in 1 to 4 year ol d animals). A socioeconomic study conducted in parallel showed that th e treatment in cattle is on average profitable (benefit/cost ratio of 1.14) but remains a risky investment which should not be generalised ( benefit/cost ratio would have been below 1 in more than half of the pa rticipating herds). In sheep, the benefit/cost ratio is high (2.47) wi th a low risk of losses (< 10%). The obstacles to the adoption by farm ers of such a treatment and the usefulness of a pluridisciplinary appr oach in similar studies are then discussed.