Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Shepherds warned to monitor worm burdens or put growth at risk

Checking worm egg counts can cut unnecessary costs.
Checking worm egg counts can cut unnecessary costs.

Failure to monitor worm burdens could result in costly growth rate losses in sheep, warns Zoetis.

The animal health firm said a survey on its Twitter account, @sheep_farmers, found many shepherds are basing their worming decisions on signs, rather than monitoring methods such as faecal egg count (FEC) tests or growth rates.

Half the respondents said they did not use FEC tests in their flock, and 34% said they wormed their sheep based on “seeing dirty back ends” and 29% were based on time of year.

More than half said they suspected some level of wormer resistance but 70% had never tested for it.

Zoetis vet Dr Dave Armstrong said no two years were the same and basing worming decisions on the time of year or waiting until symptoms appear can be costly.

He said the firm’s Parasite Watch service, which offers data on FEC tests from 24 farms across the country, showed that although 2018 was perceived as a low-risk year for worms, there were many very high peaks of challenge.

“This potentially resulted from there not being enough time for immunity development in the lambs due to a lack of trickle exposure,” added Dr Armstrong.

Heather Stevenson, a veterinary investigation officer at SRUC, said it was essential for sheep farmers to check whether the worming products they use are working effectively.

She said: “Research has shown that lambs which are only treated when clinical signs become apparent have lower live weight gains.

“Checking worm egg counts can help avoid the costs associated with unnecessary treatments.”

Quality Meat Scotland knowledge transfer specialist Heather McCalman said a free guide can be obtained by emailing info@qmscotland.co.uk