Farmers encouraged to check wormers with faecal egg counts

Sheep farmers are being encouraged to check the effectiveness of wormers by using faecal egg counts.

Andrew Pattison, who is the suitably qualified person representative on the Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep group, says it is important for sheep farmers to look at what they are doing and manage wormers and worms on farm.

See also: Take our e-learning course on worm control

“You can’t do that if haven’t got a correct picture of what’s going on. Faecal egg counts are the only way to do it,” he says.

Sheep farmer Edgar Jones, Wilmaston Farm, Herefordshire, decided to use faecal egg counts after noticing his lambs were not thriving and some scouring was present.

“We can delay the onset of resistance if we adopt the right strategies. With the wrong strategy the loss of clinical worm control can be very rapid – potentially within a single grazing season.”
Lesley Stubbings, independent sheep consultant

Using the information from taking faecal egg counts, Mr Jones has been able to build up a picture of susceptibility to wormers on his farm and understand the type of worms that were present.

This has provided valuable information so he could choose the correct worming strategy.

See also: Top tips on effective worm control

Independent sheep consultant Lesley Stubbings has been working with the Animal Health Distributors Association to launch a campaign encouraging farmers to take faecal egg counts.

She says: “Some farmers do not recognise the need to act while wormers are still apparently working to control clinical disease on their farms.

“In many cases sheep farmers are still achieving good levels of worm control with their current strategies. However, resistance is out there and can be detected if we look for it.

“We can delay the onset of resistance if we adopt the right strategies. With the wrong strategy the loss of clinical worm control can be very rapid – potentially within a single grazing season.”