Plan an integrated health management program
MLA & AWI July 31, 2024
Know the diseases that can occur on your farm and be able to recognise symptoms and adopt preventative strategies rather than relying on treatments to suppress disease. Integrate management and chemical treatments to: optimise production, minimise residues, reduce animal health costs and reduce the development of chemical resistance.
Worms
Drench resistance is a major problem in all areas where gastrointestinal parasites occur. While it is the inevitable outcome of using drenches, strategies can be adopted to slow the development of resistance.
Management changes may reduce the risk of disease. In such cases, the underlying drenching program may be changed, for example, to reduce frequency or eliminate treatment. On the other hand, changing flock structure can increase the risk of parasite infection, and can increase the requirement for more intensive monitoring. If unsure, consult a local veterinarian or sheep health advisor to determine the likely worm status of your property. Local knowledge from other sheep producers can also help.
Important actions for worm control
- Time treatment strategically to reduce the number of drenches required to minimise worm burdens.
- Manage to minimise the risk of worm infestations in the highest-risk mobs:
- Use grazing management to provide weaners with low-worm-risk paddocks.
- Rotate sheep and cattle.
- Use intensive grazing management to control barber’s pole worm.
- Make sure weaners and lambing ewes achieve condition score targets to minimise risk and supplement if falling below critical limits for both energy and protein.
- Monitor worm egg counts (WEC) as the basis for when to drench.
- Monitor drench resistance to ensure you are using the most effective drenches, see the Management of drench resistance tool for guidelines.
- Select sheep with appropriate Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ABSVs) for increased resistance to worms (low WEC) and lower dags (DAG) or buy rams from studs that can demonstrate progress in these traits without compromising wool and meat quality (see MMFS Module 9 Boost Business with Breeding).
- Use an integrated parasite management approach.
Visit www.wormboss.com.au/programs/sheep.php for regional worm recommendations.
Major endemic diseases
The major endemic diseases that require preventative programs include:
- gastrointestinal parasites, including black scour worm (Trichostrongylus spp.), brown stomach worm (Teladorsagia circumcincta) and barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus contortus)
- liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica)
- flystrike (most commonly caused by the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina)
- clostridial diseases and cheesy gland (Caseous lymphadenitis)
- footrot (Dichelobacter nodosus)
- lice (Bovicola ovis)
- ovine Johne’s disease (Mycobacterium paratuberculosis).
Use the following tools to identify, manage and prevent a range of common sheep diseases:
- Management of worms tool
- Management of drench resistance tool
- Management of liver fluke tool
- Management of flystrike tool
- Prevention of clostridial diseases and cheesy gland tool
- Diagnosis, control and eradication of footrot, lice and OJD tool
- Analysing the risk of potential sources of disease tool
- Quarantine periods for important sheep diseases tool
- Common sheep diseases and their causes tool