Fróðskaparrit - 31.12.2000, Page 173

SNIKAR A SEYðl I FØROYUM
177
Faroese sheep, it is obvious that a great va-
riety of parasites have had the opportunity
to become established in the Islands, the
only restricting factor possibly being the
Faroese climate.
Materials and methods
Post mortem examinations
During 8-24 October 1998, samples were
taken from 15 lambs. The animals came
from four different locations, and were
from the mixed, native Faroese breed of
sheep.
Four lambs were from the village of
Saksun. four lambs from Streymnes, and
three lambs from Kollafjørður. These were
all sheep that had been grazing freely in the
open fields in the mountains. Samples
were also taken from four lambs grazing
solely on limited, fenced pastures (14
lambs and ewes on 1 ha.) in Havnardalur
near Tórshavn. Fig. 1.
In connection with the autumn slaughter,
samples were taken from the abomasum,
ileum, jejunum, colon, coecum and rectum;
all samples included content. The sections
of the alimentary tract were ligated at both
ends to prevent loss of contents or transfer
between sections during processing. More-
over, lungs and liver were taken.
Faecal examinations
Faecal samples were collected from the
post mortem material. Samples were also
collected in the winter (January and Febru-
ary), in the spring (April), and in the au-
tumn (September and October) in 1999.
The lambs were about five months old in
autumn, eight months old in winter, and 10
Fig. 1. Map ofthe Faroe Islands.
Mynd 1. Føroyakort.
months old in the spring. Ewes were older
than one year. The faecal samples were
taken in eight different locations in the au-
tumn, in five different locations in winter,
and in six different locations in the spring.
The locations were randomly chosen.
Samples were obtained directly from the
rectum. The total number of sheep exam-
ined was 226 lambs and ewes. The distrib-
ution of faecal samples collected was as
listed in Table 1.
In the spring of 1999, faecal samples
were collected from sheep from six differ-
ent locations. All sheep from three of these
locations were last treated with an-
thelmintics and flukicides in January 1999,
and all sheep from the other locations were