It's more than Just a Business
Integrated Parasite Management for sheep
Integrated Parasite Management for sheep
Worms, lice and blowflies are the three biggest health problems for the Australian sheep industry and represent more than $700 million in direct and indirect costs to Australian woolgrowers every year.
Forecasts suggest that these costs could increase significantly, due to increased parasite resistance to chemical control, impeded market access from pesticide residues, and growing occupational health and safety concerns.
There is an urgent need to develop parasite control programs that do not strongly select for chemical resistance, that produce nil or very low residue wool at harvest, and that do not pose human health concerns.
Australian Wool Innovation is working with universities, government departments and hundreds of Australian woolgrowers to develop Integrated Parasite Management programs for the major sheep producing regions of Australia.
There is a major message coming from the Integrated Parasite Management-sheep (IPM-s) project in terms of worm control – every farm is different – but IPM-s programs will provide the flexibility to deal with this variability.
Sheep farmers need to develop and monitor their IPM-s programs in consultation with a veterinary or animal health expert who is familiar with both the research and the subtleties of their local environment.
Programs need to consider:
Worms
- Testing for drench resistance to know which drenches are effective against the parasites on your property
- Monitoring worm egg counts at critical times of the year in different mobs
- Drenching only after monitoring of worm egg counts indicate the need
- Timing drenches to reduce worm burdens or slow the development of drench resistance
- Using grazing management strategies to reduce exposure of sheep to worms on pasture, such as the ‘Smart Grazing’ approach developed by the Mackinnon Project for winter rainfall regions, or intensive rotational grazing, or sheep-cattle interchange in summer rainfall regions
- Selecting sheep for both increased resistance to worms (low worm egg count) and, in winter rainfall regions, for less scouring (low dag score)
- Setting targets for ewe condition score at lambing and weaner bodyweight over summer-autumn and monitoring progress towards meeting these targets
- Use of protein meal supplements during late pregnancy in summer rainfall regions to increase worm resistance.
Lice
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Instituting a lice biosecurity plan that could include checking lice history and quarantining purchased or agisted sheep, preventing strays, guarding against the introduction of lice by contractors or shearers who have recently been on an infested property and coordinating treatment with neighbours
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Monitoring for lice before shearing, before crutching and at other times when sheep are yarded
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If lice are detected, treating thoroughly with an effective chemical at next shearing regardless of whether or not a long wool treatment was used – ALL sheep must be mustered and treated.
Flystrike
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Correct tail docking and mulesing (or a replacement technology)
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Strategic timing of crutching and shearing
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Selecting sheep that have reduced susceptibility to both body and breech strike
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Controlling scouring through good worm control, selection for low dag score and nutritional management
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Strategic application of pesticides with regard to fly biology, flystrike risk and residues
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Other methods that may be applicable on some properties – including choice of low flystrike risk paddocks for the most susceptible sheep and the strategic use of flytraps.
Links
http://www.wool.com.au/page__2244.aspx
http://www.wool.com.au/page__2251.aspx
LiceSmart sheep lice risk assesment
University of Melbourne, Mackinnon Project