Paddock Horses

Parasitosis is much worse when animals graze in low-lying land with permanent marsh and with a large quantity of animals per hectare. Using animals grazing in these conditions with the intention of assessing the anti-parasite effect of a product is a real test of its effectiveness. For this reason, on this occasion, a group of 22 horses, a mixture of geldings, mares and colts that live permanently in a 9- hectare field within which there are 2 hectares of marshland where the animals get their drinking water, were chosen. 10 horses were chosen from this group for testing.

Objective
To assess the ovicide and larvicide effectiveness of FARANTEL on the most common parasites of paddock horses.

Materials and Methods
Animals: Five control horses (control group CG) were chosen and 5 treated horses (treated group TG) which continued living in the same place under the same conditions. Materials: Veterinary exam gloves, nylon bags, cooling refrigerator for the extraction, conservation and sending of the samples.

Experiment Design
Timetable of application: The anti-parasite medicine was administered to the TG orally on day zero and this was repeated on the 20 th day.
Timetable for sampling: Samples of faeces where taken from both groups from the rectal ampulla on days 0, 20, 40 and 60.
Determining factors: An egg count per gram of faeces (HPG) and the typification of the larvae for each of the samples taken.

Results
In the first instance, an increase of the parasite load was observed during the 60-day period of assessment in both groups, although the increase (no significant difference) was 250HPG between the first and last samplings in the CG while in the TG the difference was only 136HPG. On the other hand, an insignificant difference was observed in the values of the HPG between the two groups throughout the sampling period, but fundamentally a reduction from the deviation standard of the TG was observed from the sampling on the 20th day which indicates the action of FARANTEL. Lastly in the CG not only Strongyles larvae but also Oxiurus, Parascaris equorum and Ascaris larvae were observed whereas in the TG only Strongyles eggs where observed.

Conclusion
In low-lying land and with a high density of horses per hectare FARANTEL causes a reduction in the parasite load and in the infective species.

Sport Horses

Objective
To assess the ovicide and larvicide effectiveness of FARANTEL on the most common parasites of stabled horses.

Materials and Methods
Animals: A total of 10 horses in training under correct health care. 5 of these were used as control horses (control group CG) and 5 were used as treated horses (treated group TG).
Materials: Veterinary exam gloves, nylon bags, cooling refrigerator for the extraction, conservation and sending of the samples.

Experiment Design
Timetable of application: The anti-parasite medicine was administered to the TG orally on day zero and this was repeated on the 20th day.
Timetable for sampling: Samples of faeces where taken from both groups from the rectal ampulla on days 0, 20, 40 and 60.
Determining factors: An egg count per gram of faeces (HPG) and the typification of the larvae for each of the samples taken.

Results
In the first instance, an increase was observed of the parasite load during the 60 days of assessment with the CG, which was not statistically significant as a result of a wide standard deviation. Moreover, and for the same motive previously expressed an insignificant difference was observed in favour of the TG in the values of HPG (figure 1). The CG showed with the sampling on days 20, 40 and 60 individual values higher that 1000HPG while the TG showed individual values which did not go beyond 300HPG on the same dates of sampling. This result was even more important when taking into account that the parasite load was higher in the TG than in the CG at the beginning of the field test. Only Strongyles larvae where observed in both groups owing to their good state of health.

Discussion
The horses used in this study are regularly wormed with oral Invermectin and so we did not find high parasite loads. But despite this, FARANTEL prevented, on the one hand, the appearance of new types of parasites and, on the other hand, reduced even more the parasite load of the Strongyles (the only species found throughout the study) which strongly persisted for 60 days from the start of the treatment. The decrease was not statistically significant owing to the standard deviation which was very big in the CG.

Conclusion
To conclude, FARANTEL could have a stronger anti- parasite effect than the drug regularly used up to the beginning of the study.