INFLUENCE OF SUPPLEMENTATION WITH COTTON SEED CAKE ON BODY-WEIGHT, PARASITEMIA, DEGREE OF ANEMIA AND RESPONSE TO DIMINAZENE ACETURATE OF GOATS INFECTED WITH TRYPANOSOMA-CONGOLENSE

The present study investigated the changes in levels of parasitaemia, live body weight, degree of anaemia and response to treatment with dim inazene aceturate in Small East African goats infected with Trypanosom a congolense, fed either a basal ration of 500 g of fresh Napier grass only, or supplemented with 300 g of cotton seed cake per day. It was observed that the infected supplemented group had longer prepatent per iods than the infected unsupplemented group and grew at a similar rate to that of the uninfected controls. The infected unsupplemented group experienced reduction in weight gain (P < 0.001) compared to their re spective controls. Infection caused reduction in mean packed red cell values of both groups (P < 0.001) initially; however, the infected sup plemented group showed an improvement in packed red cell volumes betwe en 35 and 56 days post-infection unlike the infected unsupplemented gr oup. Following treatment at 56 days post-infection, the infected suppl emented group showed greater improvement in packed red cell volumes th an the infected unsupplemented group, and by 4 weeks after treatment, the values in the infected supplemented and control supplemented group s were similar. It is concluded that the plane of nutrition plays an i mportant role in the rate of live weight gain, and rate of recovery fr om anaemia produced by trypanosome infection. Lack of adequate nutriti on that occurs under field conditions, may have an important influence on the pathogenic impact of trypanosomiasis in the Small East African breed of goats. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.