A recent review of reports from laboratories and field experiences by experts from the Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) and the Control of Worms Sustainably (COWS) groups supports earlier forecasts that the liver fluke season will be late again in 2025/6. This underlines the importance of testing when deciding if farmers need to treat livestock, and when.
“This follows patterns of the last few years, with a lower and later liver fluke challenge than expected in many parts of the country,” says Philip Skuce of Moredun. “Even in areas in the west of Scotland, where we traditionally expect a very high challenge in the autumn, we are still not seeing any significant signs of liver fluke in the first half of November.”
“The bottom line is farmers who are sticking with traditional treatment windows in the autumn, for example ewes around tupping, are often giving treatments too early, leaving livestock susceptible to disease,”says Rebecca Mearns of APHA. “There is no such thing as an insurance policy when it comes to liver fluke treatment. Flukicides have no residual effect (persistency), so if livestock are put back on to ‘flukey’ areas after treatment, they are as just as susceptible to picking up infection as untreated stock. That’s why it is so important to use diagnostic tests,” Rebecca adds.
Testing is key to deciding whether to treat and when. The earliest line of attack are tests that identify antibodies on blood (either an ELISA test from a blood sample or Lateral Flow Test (LFT) on ear or nose pricks). These tests can detect antibodies very soon after infection. However, they are only suitable for use in this year’s (first) season grazing animals (lambs or calves), because older animals are likely to have had previous exposure to fluke and antibodies can be detected for a long time. In practice these animals are used as ‘sentinels’ to identify if liver fluke is present in different management groups and/or parts of the farm. Repeated testing every three to four weeks is essential until there is either a positive result, indicating the need to treat and/or the faecal testing methods* become valid as the liver fluke mature within the animals.
Farmers are urged to discuss testing with their vet or animal health adviser before they give any routine flukicide treatments this autumn. For more information go to:
www.scops-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/when-should-you-suspect-a-wormer-hasnt-been-fully-effective-what-should-you-do-and-how-can-you-check-Vfj_c18L
www.scops.org.uk/internal-parasites/liver-fluke/
www.scops.org.uk/podcasts-resources/
www.cattleparasites.org.uk
*The faecal testing methods, coproantigen and fluke egg detection, can only detect infection from around 8 weeks and 10 weeks, respectively, post-infection. We would recommend these tests are used later in the autumn and over winter.
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Notes to editors: -
- This press release is issued by National Sheep Association (NSA) on behalf of SCOPS and COWS. For more information contact Katie James, NSA Communications Manager, on 01684 892661 or katie@nationalsheep.org.uk.
- SCOPS is an industry-led group that works in the interest of the UK sheep industry. It recognises that, left unchecked, anthelmintic resistance is one of the biggest challenges to the future health and profitability of the sector. More at www.scops.org.uk.
- COWS is a voluntary initiative aiming to provide the best available, evidence-based information to the beef and dairy cattle industries in relation to the sustainable control of both internal and external parasites. More at www.cattleparasites.org.uk.
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