Grazing fodder species rich in bioactive secondary metabolites in small ruminants: health, zootechnical, economic and environmental benefits

For several years, small ruminant breeders have experienced significant difficulties in gastrointestinal strongyles control, a major disease in grazing sheep and goats. Indeed, parasites are becoming increasingly resistant to several families of antiparasitic. Moreover, treatments based on the use of synthetic anthelmintics have other environmental and societal limits. For 4 years, the CASDAR FASTOChe project has studied agroecological alternative solutions for the breeders based on the grazing of plants rich in bioactive secondary metabolites (BSMs), included condensed tannins. 3 species were tested: chicory, plantain and sainfoin. A lot of on-station experimentations, surveys and farm monitoring showed that the bioactive compounds in these plants have no significant effect on gastrointestinal parasite infestation levels in sheep and goats, contrary to what the literature suggests. Nevertheless, they are not lacking in zootechnical and agronomic interest with good animal performance and interesting forage production. The environmental benefits of sainfoin and plantain have also been demonstrated, with lower nitrogen emissions. Finally, simulations of production systems using grasslands based on bioactive plants showed that their economic interest is strongly linked to their production.