• animal welfare
• homeopathy
• parasitic diseases
• Sheep
• Zerasca

The Zerasca sheep farming represents a fundamental activity in preventing the decline of rural land and population of Zeri. However, livestock methods must also guarantee an acceptable level of sustainability concerning animal health, environmental impact and product quality. Parasitic diseases are one of the most important pathological conditions in sheep and are also responsible for considerable economic losses. Current treatment strategies employ chemical drugs which imply the presence of residues in food and an elevated environmental impact. In this context, the use of homeopathy can provide an additional value to the typical products derived from this breed. The goal of this study was to evaluate parameters linked to animal welfare in Zerasca sheep, treated with homeopathy as an alternative method of control against some parasitic diseases. Twenty-seven adult sheep were divided into three groups: a. Control (untreated); b. Drug (treated); c. Homeopathy. Four fecal sampling were taken for the parasitological examinations (EPG and OPG), and two blood samplings were performed in order to determine the complete blood count, blood chemistry and immunological parameters. Results do not demonstrate significant differences among parameters obtained from blood samples in the three groups. Interesting observations can be made regarding egg output within the homeopathically treated group, which was almost always under the threshold of zoo-technical damage.