Resumen

MEDINA, Rosa  y  SANCHEZ, Alexander. Effect of supplementation with Leucaena leucocephala foliage     on weight gain of drenched and non drenched sheep. Zootecnia Trop. [online]. 2006, vol.24, n.1, pp.55-68. ISSN 0798-7269.

An essay was carried out to evaluate the effect of supplementation with Leucaena leucocephala foliage on weight gain of ovine with and without antihelmintic treatment. A group of 32 tropical cross breed lambs were selected with two and half months of age and average weight of 11.94 kg. Lambs were divided in 4 treatments: T1: none drenched without supplement, T2: drenched and supplemented with Leucaena leucocephala, T3: non drenched and supplemented with Leucaena leucocephala, and T4: drenched without supplement. Animals received freshly cut Elephant pasture (Pennisetum purpureum) as base ration during 106 days and the following parameters were determined: egg count, animal weight, and daily intake of Leucaena and Elephant pasture. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design with eight repetitions. Data were analyzed through analysis of variance and for the multiple comparison of mean the Tukey test was used. The intake mean were 739.99, 615.12, 616.95, and 733.15 g DM/animal/day for T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively.  Parasitary loads for T1 and T3 treatments had a mean of 1075 and 1500 epg respectively, without differences (P>0.05) among them. Regarding to weight gain, the results were 47.29, 43.51, 21.10, and 18.51 g/day for T3, T2, T4, and T1, respectively, being T3 significantly different from T2, T4, and T1, which were similar among them. It is concluded that supplementation with Leucaena in sheep increased body weight and lowered the costs for parasite control.

Palabras clave : ovines; Leucaena; parasitoids; supplement.