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Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective while doing this project was to determine whether horses that were kept in a pasture had more or less parasites than horses that were kept in stalls. I predicted that the horses kept in a pasture would have more parasites than the horses kept in stalls. Methods/Materials Eight horses were dewormed on the same day with the same dewormer. Four of these horses were kept in a pasture and four were kept in stalls. Forty-nine days later, fecal samples were collected from the eight horses, prepared and examined under a microscope. Strongyle and ascarid eggs were counted in each sample and the number found was totaled within the two groups of horses. The totals were then compared to determine which group had more parasite eggs. Samples were taken again twenty-four days later and this process was repeated. Results The first collection resulted in the stall horses having a total of 6 parasites with an average of 1.5 parasites per horse. The pasture horses had a total of 37 parasites with an average of 9.25 parasites per horse. One of the stalled horses was turned out on pasture before the second collection which resulted in his having almost double the amount of parasites from the first collection. After the second collection, the three stalled horses had a total of 1 parasite for an average of .33 parasite per horse, and the five pasture horses had a total of 163 parasites for an average of 32.6 parasites per horse. Conclusions/Discussion I concluded from my results that horses kept in a pasture are more likely to obtain parasites than horses kept in stalls. This may be due to all fecal material being removed from the stall daily and the feeding arrangement in which stalled horses eat from a bunk while pasture horses eat on the ground where parasites can crawl up on the grass. Therefore, horses kept in a pasture may need to be dewormed more often than horses kept in stalls.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1020

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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