Vaccinating Lambs for Barbers Pole Worm скачать в хорошем качестве

Vaccinating Lambs for Barbers Pole Worm

It is a common misconception that flies are the biggest animal welfare challenge for sheep farmers but in our district Barbers Pole Worm is a much bigger issue. Barbers Pole worm thrives in our hot wet summers and unlike flies which usually only affect a few animals in a mob, Barbers Pole can be deadly to the majority of the mob. While flystrike is visual and thus easy to detect Barbers Pole is not always obvious until sheep just drop dead. So we monitor by counting the worm eggs that are shed in the sheep dung and we employ a variety of strategies to minimise the impact. A newly developed weapon in our armory is a vaccine developed in Scotland which helps control Barbers Pole. It requires 3 primers vaccine injections before it is fully effective which is quite a labour and cost challenge but for us its well worth the time and effort. As we have the sheep in the yards we will also apply Clik to the ewes as a precaution against flystrike. We are always a bit reluctant to do this as over reliance on a chemical will inevitably lead to resistance but all the advice is that this summer will be particularly bad for flies. Since 2008 we have been selecting for plain breech sheep so we hope that stands us in good stead.