Volume: 56 Issue: 4
Year: 2025, Page: 566-571, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2025.56.4.566-571
Received: Sept. 10, 2025 Accepted: Oct. 16, 2025 Published: Dec. 31, 2025
The FAMACHA© system was developed in South Africa and has been tested in various geographical regions on sheep for targeted selective treatment with anthelmintics against gastrointestinal parasitism, particularly Haemonchus contortus. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of the FAMACHA© chart in different indigenous sheep breeds of Tamil Nadu, Southern India. The investigation involved 160 animals representing the Madras Red, Mecheri, Vembur and Nilagiri breeds. Faecal egg counts, haematological parameters, ocular mucous membrane photographs and FAMACHA© scores were recorded monthly from 40 animals of each breed. In Madras Red sheep, higher FAMACHA© scores were consistently associated with lower Volume of Packed Red Cell (VPRC) values and higher Egg per gram of faeces (EPG) counts, demonstrating a positive correlation. In Mecheri and Nilagiri breeds, FAMACHA© scores showed a stronger correlation with VPRC, while in the Vembur breed, over 50% of the animals exhibited a positive relationship between eye scores, VPRC, and EPG values. Overall, a significant negative correlation was observed between FAMACHA© scores and VPRC. The study concluded that a negative correlation was observed between FAMACHA© scores and VPRC values, indicating that higher FAMACHA© scores were associated with lower packed cell volumes (anaemia).
Keywords: FAMACHA©, Sheep, H. contortus, ocular mucosa, VPRC, haemoglobin, EPG
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© 2025 Manikkavasagan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Manikkavasagan, I., Raman, M., Azahahianambi, P., Bino Sundar, S. T., and Pandian, A.S.S. 2025. Field evaluation of FAMACHA© and its correlation with Packed cell volume and Faecal egg count in detection of haemonchosis in indigenous sheep breeds of Tamil Nadu, South India. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 56 (4): 566-571