The Vet

• Lungworms • Fluke • Lice.

Mr Biggs says the main diagnostics tests farmers can use to help identify the parasite risk and the need for treatment include: 1. Faecal Egg Count (FEC) tests - commonly performed on pooled samples from 6 to 10 animals. FEC helps farmers identify and monitor parasite burdens in their stock.

However, disease can occur before eggs are passed in the faeces (pre-patent infection) and is common in lungworm.

FEC tests are also not as sensitive for fluke. 2. Liver fluke ELISA antibody blood test - useful in springborn calves before housing and indicates immune exposure and, therefore, presence of active fluke infection on your farm. However, older cattle may well have historic antibodies circulating but does not indicate they are immune. 3. Fluke coproantigen ELISA faecal testing - can detect the presence of fluke a few weeks before fluke egg counts, but might not be useful if fluke burdens are low. 4. Post-mortem feedback -

Because fluke can be difficult to detect and survive in cattle and sheep for some considerable time, slaughterhouse or postmortem reports can also give useful feedback.

Mr Biggs added: “It’s best to discuss which tests to use with your vet so you can develop a bespoke worm and fluke control strategy and only use the most appropriate products, if needed, at the most appropriate time for your farm. This should be based on the risks identified by the diagnostic tests throughout the season.

Why Treat at Housing Should worms be detected, housing is an opportune time to treat animals, said Vet Ally Ward from Zoetis.

“At housing, you bring animals together and place them

Back to the Future

By Andy Cant Northvet Veterinary Group

I’ve just retired out of Northvet Veterinary Group. Qualifying from the Dick Vet 40yrs ago next year. I worked “down south” for the first 9 years before coming home where I’ve worked for the last 30yrs. I consider myself very lucky to have worked in the vet profession. It’s been interesting, at times challenging but overall, basically good fun.

I was looking up an old diary of what I did on my first day in my first job at Turnbull & Muir in Hawick. A calf with pneumonia, a ewe with a bad eye and a dog called Tara with pyometra that needed operated on to remove her womb. So not a lot has changed case wise! I remember Tara’s owner was a director of Lyle and Scott and gave me a jumper in appreciation of getting her on the mend, I thought Wow! That’s generous. Whilst various clients have shown their appreciation in various ways over the years that remains the only jumper I was given!

However, there are so many things that have changed. Size of the cattle would be one, as I started out, continental breeds were just coming in and cow size has got bigger and bigger. Funny how now the trend will be to get them smaller again!

Housing of cattle has gone from tied byres to mostly slatted courts in Orkney, you can argue the welfare implications of both systems but tied byres were good. Labour intensive though.

Number of people on farms is another, where has everyone gone! Mechanisation of so many manual jobs means that there are less folk about, in many cases just a one-man band. So, less opportunities for social interactions and food around farm kitchen tables!

Time is the other factor that has disappeared, everyone is busy. No longer can we say we’ll be out sometime today; a time is needed. We are more efficient as a result, but I feel something is lost.

In the practice the gender of vets has changed! 30 yrs ago at Northvet we had 30% female vets, 70% male vets now it’s the other way around. So, equality has prevailed over time!

There are lots of improvements in diagnostics, preventions and treatments of course. Looking back in my diary the use of Strinacin tablets, Aureomycin puffers, Parentrovite injections are now names from the past. Tracherine used to be the only respiratory vaccine now it’s gone and now it’s hard to keep up with all the vaccines available. The biggest improvements in getting farm animals better in my time is down to the simplest of things, pain relief and fluid therapy. So, whilst we might have ground up 30 aspirin twice a day for a cow years ago and drenched her with a bottle of water, it was a hassle, not easy, and didn’t get done. So, the advent of non-steroidal antiinflammatories in an injectable form which gives pain relief and the Aggers pump which allows you to easily put large volumes of fluid into the rumen have provided basic nursing care which makes a huge difference to outcomes.

It’s fun to look back to the old days and some of what went on thankfully still does, time slows as you get out to the north isles and in North Ronaldsay “you’ll come in for a cup of tea” is still a euphemism for something far more heart-warming!

My last visit at 5.00pm last Friday was to a tup. On leaving the shed I realised I’d left my stethoscope in the pen. Quick as a flash the farmer quipped “It doesn’t matter – you’ll not need it again!”……..I went back and got it….. you never know!

in close proximity with shared airspace, which aids disease transmission. It can also be a stressful time due to the change in housing, diet and mixing of groups.”

“If you think about managing parasites now and conducting tests to identify the risk, it will ease the pressure on stock at housing and help ensure they are as productive as they can be,” she added.

Any animal that has had a grazing season is at risk of carrying worms, particularly first-season grazing animals whose immunity hasn’t had time to build up. And even though the weather for many parts of the UK has been dry, the parasite risk is still there, according to reports from the Zoetis Parasite Watch Scheme.

Mrs Ward advises farmers to be aware of lungworm if firstseason grazing cattle are not vaccinated.

“With lungworm, the margins of error in terms of the number of parasites to cause an outbreak are much lower, and lungworm numbers can suddenly explode especially in warm wet autumn weather resulting in severe disease outbreaks.”

“If parasites are detected in your beef cattle, your animal health advisor will be able to give you the best advice on which products to choose; CYDECTIN TriclaMox PourOn is one option. It contains moxidectin and triclabendazole in a convenient rain-fast pour-on formulation. The moxidectin will treat stomach worms, lungworm and control chewing and sucking lice. The triclabendazole gives a good spectrum of activity against late immature and adult fluke,” said Mrs Ward. A new project aims to help farmers and crofters improve retention rates and avoid penalties because of missing ear tags in sheep and cattle.

Researchers at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) are investigating what makes applying ear tags difficult and what causes ear tags to fall out.

They are looking to speak to a range of farmers and crofters, including both those who have issues with ear tag losses and those who don’t, to find out how to avoid these problems.

The team, led by Dr Kate Lamont and Dr Sam Beechener, is looking for answers to a variety of questions about people’s experiences with ear tags, including whether they find locating the tag in the ear a problem, if there is a breed of cattle or sheep that seems more prone to ear tag loss, or whether a particular type of fence, field boundary or even type of tag causes more problems.

They are also interested in finding out if farmers and crofters are unclear about when and how many animals need to be tagged, or if they think ear tagging is an unwelcome labour/cost expense which isn’t a priority.

Dr Sam Beechener said: “There are lots of ways for farmers and crofters to have their say. It can be via a quick chat on the phone, a text or an email, or by sending photos, completing an online survey, or even a site visit where they can point out what the problem is and where on the farm or croft it occurs.”

The project is funded by the Scottish Government which

FARMING SCOTLAND MAGAZINE Next issue out January 2023 Project aims to solve ear tag issues

is trying to establish how big a problem ear tag loss is for smaller enterprises, what the causes are, and importantly, what could be done to help.

Data gathered will be used to provide information about how to prevent losses and avoid penalties arising from missing ear tags.

For more information, call 07714 528850 or email: eartagloss@sruc.ac.uk

Farmers urged to test silage following a challenging season

Dairy and beef farmers across the UK are being urged to draw up plans to make the most of this year’s ‘mixed bag’ silage.

Lientjie Colahan, technical sales support at Lallemand Animal Nutrition, is urging farmers to get their silage tested and plan winter diets accordingly following one of the hottest and driest summers on record.

The plea comes as the Met Office confirmed 2022 is the driest year since 1976 and the UK’s warmest year on record.

“It’s really a mixed bag this year in terms of forage quality and availability so it’s important for farmers to get their silage analysed so they can draw up plans to maximise the value of the forage available to them,” says Mrs Colahan.

“Some farmers have got very dry silage, which could influence intakes; some will be short of silage for the winter having produced lower volumes; and others have been forced to start feeding their winter feedstocks early due to a lack of grass growth.”

In many cases, farmers will be faced with high dry matter (DM) silage, which Mrs Colahan likens to eating a dry breakfast cereal without any milk.

“Steps will need to be taken to improve forage palatability to ensure adequate feed intake,” she says.