Potencial antihelmíntico de sementes de abóbora (Cucurbita mochata) em equinos

Control of helminths in horses should be a constant concern, because the intestinal parasites are responsible for raising morbidity and mortality rates, as well as predisposing animals to other diseases. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of different dosages of pumpkin seed meal (Cucurbita moschata) as anthelmintic in horses. The work was carried out at the Goiano Campus Ceres IF, using 12 horses from the Equine-Assisted Therapy Center in a completely randomized design in plots subdivided in time with three replicates, the plots being the four antiparasitic treatments and the subplots the five evaluation periods of the OPG (eggs per gram) after treatment (14, 21, 28, 35 and 42 days). The treatments were: T1 control group, T2 commercial anthelmintic Ivermectin 200 μg/kg, T3 1 g/kg pumpkin seed meal (PSM) and T4 3 g/kg PSM. Ivermectin was effective at 21, 28 and 35 days, while 1 g/kg of FSA was low at 14 and 28 days and ineffective at other periods and 3 g/kg of FSA was ineffective in all periods. As for the efficiency in reducing egg counts in the post-treatment periods, ivermectin was more efficient at 28 days and the dose of 1 g/kg of FSA was more efficient at 14 days, however, the dose of 3 g/kg of FSA was inefficient in all evaluated periods. The dose of 1 g/kg of pumpkin seed flour had low efficacy and efficiency in the control of helminths in horses, and the treatment with 3 g/kg was inefficient and ineffective in all evaluated post-treatment periods.