FAMACHA to control blood sucking helminths and anthelmintic resistance in goats

FAffa Malan CHArt (FAMACHA) has been coined from the name of Dr Faffa Malan, a South African Veterinarian who evolved the technique for treating the animals infected with Haemonchus using clinical anaemia as the determinant. The test is based on the assessment of colour variation of the conjunctival mucous membrane. The standard chart colour varies from pink red (normal ) to white (anaemic) , for which scores are allotted as 1 (normal) to 5 (Anaemic). The Scientists of Animal Science Division have standardized this chart to be used in the goat. On the basis of FAMACHA score card and correlation with the faecal egg count, it is easy to take a correct decision to go for deworming of the animals. Selective deworming minimizes the use of unwanted anthelmintic in small ruminants and thereby reduces the development of anthelmintic resistance. Care should be taken while interpreting the results that the anaemia cannot be always considered as the gold standard indicator for presence of worm infestation in the animals. Therefore for accurate diagnosis, the symptoms of gastrointestinal infestation viz. diarrhoea, lethargy, bottle jaw, oedema, poor body conditions, rough hair coat, etc. should also be considered and correlated with the FAMACHA score. Eye should be checked in normal day light. Usually during the high risk season, it is advisable to use at least once in 14 days to check the eye and correlate with faecal egg count. If more than 10% of the total flock is showing the score of more than 4 and 5, then all the animals showing more than 3 score should be dewormed and grazing area should be rotated or changed.

Benefit:FAMACHA is a very handy tool to detect anaemic status of the animals and to correlate with gastrointestinal parasitic load in the field. Thereby the risk of anthelmintic resistance and cost involved in this could easily be prevented.

Source : Contact person with Name, Designation e-mail and phone no: Dr Jai Sunder, Pr Scientist, ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair, 9434281840, jai.sunder@icar.gov.in