Department Issues Liver Fluke Forecast and Alert
IRELAND - A disease-forecasting model based on recent weather data provided by Met Eireann predicts that the risk of liver fluke infestation is very high including parts of the country not usually considered at risk such south east Ireland, report the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
31 October 2012
2 minute read
The high summer rainfall and mild wet winter weather provided conditions suitable for the over-wintering and propagation of the snail intermediate host, as well as the production of the infective stage of the liver fluke on all types of pasture.
Significant Surge in Acute Liver Fluke Disease
There has been a significant surge in the numbers of sheep carcasses submitted for post mortem to the Dept of Agriculture, Food & the Marine's Regional Veterinary Laboratories that are severely affected with acute liver fluke disease. Several of the recent outbreaks resulted in multiple deaths. In many of these cases, the animals have been treated but treatment has been either too late or farmers have used an inappropriate product.
Acute liver fluke disease is caused by immature liver flukes (not adults) and is difficult to confirm in live animals, as there are no eggs to detect in a dung sample. Sheep are more susceptible than cattle, but a heavy fluke challenge can affect growth rates and body condition in cattle too.
If acute liver fluke disease is suspected or confirmed, then it is essential that flukicides that are effective against immature liver fluke are used. Products that only kill adult liver fluke should be avoided. These flukicides are short acting (although residues are detectable in meat and milk for a period after treatment).
Animals treated this week may need to be re-treated again in four to six weeks time if animals are on fluke infested pasture, and some low-lying poorly drained pasture has such a high liver fluke challenge that sheep should not be grazed on it at all this autumn/winter if there is an alternative.
Livestock owners should review their fluke control programmes in the light of this year's acute liver fluke threat, ideally in consultation with their veterinary surgeon. As the months go by the threat from acute fluke disease will recede and farmers will need to be aware of sub-acute & chronic disease which will inevitably follow.
In previous years where disease was as widespread and severe as is being reported currently, there were significant problems with weak ewes, stillbirths and ewes having insufficient milk to rear lambs because of heavy fluke burdens, so early and appropriate intervention and ongoing fluke control is very important this year.
Rumen fluke is a separate parasite; the immature stages cause diarrhoea and death. The drug that is usually used to control them kills adult liver fluke only and is not indicated for treatment of immature liver fluke, therefore control of these two parasites should be considered and addressed separately.
For more information on Flukicide and Liver Fluke control click here
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