Anthelmintic usage on the performance of the Agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) reared intensively in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies

Abstract

Anthelmintic drugs have been used strategically in livestock reared in the tropics. These drugs have been used in the treatment of endoparasitism which have resulted in an increase in the animals’ performance. The agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) is a neo-tropical rodent with the potential for domestication and has been farmed intensively in Trinidad. However, the objective of this research was to investigate the effect of anthelmintic use of the growth performance of the agouti. In searching the literature, it was found that this type of study on the agouti has not been done. In this experiment fourteen weaned agoutis weighing 1kg were divided into two groups randomly. The first group (T1) was not given any anthelmintic treatment but the second group (T2) was treated with Endovet Ces® subcutaneously every three months. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) between the two groups in the carcass weight, weight gain, dressing percentage (hot and cold), heart, lungs, skin, head and feet. However, a significant difference (p < 0.05) was seen between groups in the weight of liver and pluck. To the authors knowledge this is the first time that carcass parameters has been presented in literature. The live weight of the animals at the end of the experiment ranged from 2.4 kg to 2.6 kg and animals had a dressing percentage of 57% to 55%. The results are suggestive that the use of anthelmintic drugs in agoutis reared intensively had no significant effect on weight gain and dressing percentage.

Ethnohistoric Accounts as Valuable Resources for Deciphering Commensal Relationships of Pre-Contact Caribbean Agouti (Dasyproctidae: Dasyprocta)

“…Proximity between agouti and Indigenous groups, as has been shown to occur, encourages the potential for these rodents to have acted as reservoirs for pathologies (Wiscovitch-Russo et al 2020), such as parasites and viral and bacterial infections (Brown-Uddenberg et al 2004:26–30; Jones 2021; Jones and Garcia 2017). For example, the “agouti louse” (likely Trombicula sp.…”