Part of Lesson Plan: Fecal Exam for Livestock

Activity Overview / Details

The students and I discuss the importance of proper nutrition, who pays for the nutrition (the person that purchases the livestock feed) and what organisms are actually benefiting from the nutrition being provided (the parasite and the host). We review how the parasites get their nutrition from the host animal and how the animals become infected with the parasite larva.

I explain to the students the visible signs of parasite infestation to the students: rough hair coat, scours, unthrift appearance and behavior, animal is eating but loosing weight. Use the web site given below: Sheep 201, Internal parasite (worm) control. This site shows pictures, on the left side, of healthy sheep and infected animals, animals with anemia, bottle jaw, and feces with parasites evident.

We will determine parasite infestations by conducting a fecal examination and determine they types of parasite eggs present in the sample.