The use of pumpkin seeds as an alternative anthelmintic to reduce parasite burden in naturally infected lambs.

Parasite control continues to be an important management consideration for small ruminant producers worldwide because of the increased cost associated with anthelmintic treatment and the growing risk of parasite resistance to commercially available anthelmintics. As an alternative, pumpkin seeds (PS) have demonstrated anthelmintic properties in vitro that may be applied on-farm to control parasitic infection. Therefore, the objective of these experiments was to evaluate lamb growth and monitor parasite burden in lambs offered PS supplemented growing diets by measuring lamb body weight (BW), dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), fecal egg count (FEC), FAMACHA eye score (FAM), and packed cell volume (PCV). We hypothesized that the supplementation of PS would decrease parasite burden in growing lambs. Analysis of data included fixed effects of pen and treatment, random effect of lamb, with repeated effect of week. In Experiment 1, all lambs were fed a common pelleted diet for 28 days. The control group (CON) was supplemented with 0.21 kg as fed/hd/day of whole shell corn while the PS group was supplemented with 0.45 kg as fed/hd/day. These treatments were isocaloric and limit fed. At the conclusion of the supplementation period (d 28), lamb BW was lesser for those lambs offered PS when compared with CON (