Nutrition for Resistance and Resilience to Worms – Goats

Nutrition and the body condition of goats have a major impact on the resistance and resilience of goats to worms:

• Goats that are more resistant to worms can prevent some or all worms from developing and can depress egg production from those worms that do establish, resulting in lower worm egg counts.
• Goats may invest fewer nutrients in defense and immunity than sheep, and so do not develop immunity as effectively.

Goats that are resilient to worms can, despite carrying a worm burden, continue to grow and produce with less ill effects from worms. Resilience to worms is heavily dependent on the availability of good nutrition and goats being in good body condition.

Good nutrition and managing the body condition of does and the weight of young kids is a vital component of WormBoss worm control programs. Nutrition of goats relates to pastures, forage crops and supplementary feeding and being able to meet the requirements for growth and reproduction.

Protein and energy

Different macronutrients affect the resistance and resilience of goats to worms. Protein is most important for regulating the resistance of goats to worms. This is largely because worm infection results in goats diverting protein from muscle, fibre growth, and milk production, to the immune inflammatory response in the gut and repair of the damaged gut. With barber’s pole worm infection, extra nutrients are also required to replace lost red blood cells.

In contrast, protein and energy are equally important in improving resilience to worm infection.

Protein

Goats need protein to maintain and grow muscle and fibre and to sustain pregnancy and milk production. Protein is also needed for the immune response, which bolsters resistance to worm infection.

The protein supply in grazing animals comes from two sources:

• Rumen microorganisms. These convert plant proteins consumed by the goat to microbial protein. This is the major source of protein to grazing goats. A pasture with higher crude protein will generally lead to more microbial protein being available for digestion by goats.
• Bypass or protected proteins. These are the proteins that cannot be broken down by rumen microorganisms and are usually given to goats as supplementary feeds. These bypass proteins are usually insignificant in the pasture and are most valuable when given to animals with a high protein requirement such as pregnant does, lactating does and growing kids and weaners.

Extra protein can be given to goats in one of several ways:

• Improving the crude protein content of pasture. Ideal crude protein levels are 10–15% of pasture dry matter; lower for dry goats and higher for young and pregnant goats. Ensure animals have sufficient pasture to graze—at least 1,000–1,500 kg green pasture dry matter per hectare—more for higher production. Pasture quality can be improved by including legumes, improving soil fertility and grazing management.
• Feeding protein-rich supplements. These include cottonseed meal, canola meal or copra meal or, less effectively, by protein-rich grains such as lupins, pulses and oilseeds. Protein meals (which can be pelleted) contain high levels, i.e. 30–60% or more, of bypass proteins.
• Condensed tannins. Condensed tannins of some browse and other plants eaten by goats may increase the amount of protein that substantially avoids fermentation by bypassing the rumen. Research shows goats are less likely to reject browse with high tannin levels.

Energy

Goats need energy for maintenance, fibre production and to support pregnancy and lactation. Compared to protein, energy is less important for immunity and resistance to worm infection, but does enable better use of available protein. Energy in pasture is mainly provided to animals by carbohydrates, such as cellulose and sugars, and to a very small extent, by fats.

Carbohydrates are fermented by rumen microorganisms to provide metabolisable energy (ME) to the animal. ME is the energy used by the animal for maintenance, production and reproduction and the amount is expressed in megajoules (MJ) per kilogram of dry matter (MJ/kg DM).

Grazing animals obtain ME from pasture or supplements. Rumen microorganisms convert the carbohydrates in pasture or supplements, e.g. grain, hay, silage, consumed by the goat to provide ME. Pasture or forage with higher digestibility (i.e. young, green and leafy) will provide more ME for the goats.

Goats can get extra metabolisable energy by:

• Improving digestibility. Improving the digestibility of the pasture or forage (ideal levels are 70–85% of pasture dry matter; higher for young and reproductive goats) and providing sufficient pasture or forage to graze (at least 1,000–1,500 kg green pasture dry matter per hectare [about 3-6 cm high]; more for higher production). Pasture quality can be improved by including legumes, improving soil fertility and using grazing management. Goats can eat more if the pasture is high quality; this improves energy and protein nutrition.
• Feeding energy-rich supplements. These include cereal grains, lupins or oilseeds or (less effectively) by hays and silages. Cereals, lupins or oilseeds can provide 11–13 MJ ME/kg, but considerable variation exists. Hays and silages can provide 8–11 MJ ME/kg, with even greater variation.

Major and trace minerals

Major and trace minerals are generally less important than protein and energy in regulating resistance and resilience to worm infection. Mineral supplementation may only be useful in regions or situations where minerals are usually deficient.

Also, gut damage from worms can reduce the absorption of many nutrients including minerals from the diet. Mineral deficiencies causing anaemia, such as cobalt deficiency, can exacerbate barber’s pole worm infections as blood cells are already reduced in number.

Copper supplementation with copper oxide wire particles (COWP; e.g. Coopers Permatrace Copper Capsules for adult Sheep and Goats) can help goats to increase packed cell volumes i.e. the amount of red blood cells, and to reduce numbers of barber’s pole eggs shed in the faeces. Australian research in goats showed that, compared to untreated control animals, a 98% reduction in barber’s pole worm egg counts occurred after administering COWPs.

However, note the following:

• The effect of COWPs on worms in goats is limited to about 28 days after treatment.
• By about 3 months, liver copper levels should have returned to normal.
• Copper capsules should not be given to goats suffering from jaundice or other liver disorders caused by liver fluke, or grazing plants containing toxic alkaloids, e.g. Heliotrope, Ragwort, Paterson’s Curse (Salvation Jane).
• Research in young goats given copper sulphate in their feed found no effects on worm burdens.

Trace minerals have complex interactions and some are toxic in excess. Supplementation should be discussed with an advisor. Supplementing too much can be more harmful than too little.

Classes of goats with the highest nutritional requirements

Young growing animals in their first year and does during late pregnancy and early lactation are most susceptible to worms. These have increased requirements for protein and energy. In particular, does can abort if their energy needs are not met during pregnancy. Unlike sheep and cattle, the sole source of the hormone that maintains pregnancy in goats is the corpus luteum, located on the ovary. The corpus luteum can be destroyed by very low blood glucose levels.

Young goats

Susceptibility of young goats to worm infection is a major constraint to goat production. Kids are susceptible to worms up to 12–18 months, and especially after the stress of weaning. Young animals often can’t get enough protein from pasture to meet their requirements, especially if pasture is of low quality. This may be worsened by worm infections that can cause loss of appetite.

High quality pastures and supplementary feeding with a protein-rich meal or grain improve the worm resistance and resilience of young goats.

Contact an advisor to discuss your feeding plan and to establish growth targets for your young goats.

Pregnant and kidding does

During late pregnancy and early lactation the resistance of does to worm infection is usually lost or greatly reduced, resulting in a rise in worm egg count around the time of kidding. This is due to the peri-parturient relaxation of resistance (PPRR). As a result, worm eggs from does can be a major source of worm infection for young kids.

The loss of resistance occurs at the same time as nutrient requirements are increasing. The requirement for protein and energy increases 2.5–3.0 fold during late pregnancy and early lactation. Does often cannot eat enough pasture to meet these needs and so will start to mobilize fat and muscle. This highlights the importance of having does in the optimum body condition (CS 3.0 or slightly better) at kidding. Does, especially rangeland does, in poor body condition in late pregnancy can either abort or develop pregnancy toxaemia.