Effects of commonly used chemical fertilizers on development of free-living stages of Haemonchus contortus in experimentally infected pasture

AIM: The effects of N-P-K fertilizers in the form of urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash on development of free-living stages of Haemonchus contortus were studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five parasite free experimental plots of 1 m×1 m area, each of paddy leaves (15-day-old) and an equal number of Cynodon dactylon grass were infested with about 10×104 eggs/ml phosphate buffer saline along with the application of the calculated amount of fertilizers solution. On the 10th day of posttreatment, the pasture was cut, processed, larvae recovered by Baermann method and counted, which was expressed as number of L3 per kg dry matter (DM) of pasture. RESULTS: The average recovered population of L3 of H. contortus per kg DM varied significantly (p 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study shown that when N-P-K fertilizers administered at recommended level, significantly reduced larval translation of H. contortus minimizing pasture infectivity for the free range grazing animals.