author(s)
Arif Jan, Hussain Shah, Iftikhar Ahmad, Muhammad Younas, Rooh Ullah, Haroon

abstract
A comparative, epidemiological survey for the ovine gastrointestinal helminthes was carried out in different localities from farmed and domesticated environment at District Peshawar, Pakistan from November 2012 to April 2013. Fecal samples of 800 sheep were examined out of which 442 were found positive. Standard parasitological floatation techniques were used to identify the parasite eggs. Overall prevalence for domesticated male and female sheep was found to be 62% and 66.5% respectively. Same figures for farmed male and female were 50% and 40.5% respectively. Pure nematode infestation was most prevalent 49.6% followed by trematodes 3.6% and cestodes 2%. Sample study for domesticate male and female sheep were found to contain 15 helminthes species each among which nematodes were dominant in terms of abundance. Similar investigation for the farmed sheep both male and female revealed the presence of a total of 10 species of helminthes with high abundance for nematodes. Female domesticated sheep were found to have highest rate of infestation. The most prevalent parasite was found to be Haemonchus contortus. The findings can be used to sort out and minimize the risk factors for the gastrointestinal infections in both farmed and domesticated sheep of either gender.