December Seasonal Focus

For those producers impacted by the widespread flooding, our thoughts are with you as you navigate the clean-up and the difficult conditions that managing livestock brings about.

Post flood parasite issues are a challenge – particularly for livestock that has been held at higher than normal stocking rates, and endured stress around the time of and after flooding – it will pay to keep a very close eye on internal parasites (recommend WEC) – especially young stock and those that have been under any form of stress due to the flooding. Also keep an eye on other animal health issues post flooding.

As Summer gets underway, the conditions leading into our warmest season impact on the relative difficulty that we will experience over these warmer months. Internal parasite populations have been primed during the wet spring, and if control measures have been slightly sub-optimal, summer will bring these issues to the fore and continue to cause headaches for managers.

Worms this month

👉 Test – don’t guess! With this in mind, conducting regular worm egg counts, and drench checks 10 – 14 days after drenching will help you ascertain the effectiveness of your treatments, and ultimately help to stay on top of the worm populations. Undertaking larval cultures will help you understand which worms are present, so you can target the species that you have in your flock/herd with the most suitable product.
👉 Barber’s pole worm is turning up in many areas where it has not been observed previously – particularly in more southern areas  –  keep an eye out – do the WEC and ask your lab for a worm identification.
👉 A drench is considered effective if it reduces the worm population by at least 95%!
Are your drenches effective? Check by doing a worm egg count 14 days after treatment.
👉 Goat producers need to maintain vigilance for worms in their herds – and endeavour to use as many facets of an integrated parasite management control program as possible – which includes paddock management, use of browse, grazing non susceptible species, effective drenches, and other control measures such as Bioworma or Barbervax where it is applicable.

Flies this month

👉 Depending on when fly preventative treatments have been applied, vigilance will be required to monitor for any strikes that occur, and take action. Did the strike occur as a result of chemical wash out, end of effective protective period, resistance, or application issue (missed entirely, or not treated properly). Know the stated label period of protection AND keep monitoring regularly.

Ticks this month

👉 Keep an eye on the bush tick situation!  If you are not aware or familiar with Theileria or theileriosis – then keep reading. Theileriosis is a deadly cattle disease spread by the bush tick. The ParaBoss webinar recording on the topic will give you all the information you need to know to help protect your livestock from this deadly disease. Find all the ParaBoss webinar recordings here.

You can also read more about tick borne diseases here.

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