Relationship between nematode parasitism of the digestive tract and the characteristics of dairy goat farms in two French regions

Twenty goat farms have been surveyed in the Centre and in the South East of France for nematode infection. The intensity of infection was assessed by means of individual faecal egg counts performed four times per year. The po ssible occurrence of resistance to benzimidazoles on the farms was evaluate d by a faecal egg count reduction test. In parallel, information on the typ ological characteristics of the farms have been collected through a questio nnaire on the general structure, the flock and the mode of management of pa rasitism. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed in order to ex amine the associations or oppositions between variables defining the farm a nd the level of parasitism. On the other hand, a Discriminant Analysis was applied to examine the factors explaining the mean annual number of anthelm intic treatments. Results from the PCA showed that the high level of infect ion was associated with the size of the flock, the total surface of farm an d with the presence of other host species. On the other hand, nematode para sitism was inversely related to the milk production and to the stocking rat e. The Discriminant Analysis indicated that farms with a low number of annu al treatments (less than 2) were characterised either by a low stocking rat e or by a large distribution of concentrates indoors despite the use of pas tures. On the other hand, the group of farms with the highest number of ant iparasitic treatments (more than 4) corresponded to farms where anthelminti c resistance to benzimidazoles has been identified during the survey.