‘ ABOVE TOP Mud snails on a riverbank.
ABOVE LEFT An example of adult fl uke found in the liver.
ABOVE MIDDLE A mud snail measures just 0.5cm wide. ABOVE RIGHT The life cycle of a fl uke. MAIN PHOTO LEFT The soft rush plant. BELOW RIGHT Floating sweetgrass.
for detailed information: http://www.
cattleparasites.org.uk/guidance.html A fl uke control plan should aim to prevent disease and production losses in individual animals as well as reducing pasture contamination with fl uke eggs and infective cysts.
Pasture management All pasture does not have the same
fl uke risk. It is possible that a few small areas containing mud snail habitats are responsible for all of the fl uke infection on some farms. It may be possible to identify these areas and either fence them off, avoid grazing them, or graze them only at certain times of year. Although pasture can remain infected all year round, the most risky time is from late summer until winter.
Fluke is a type of parasitic worm and can survive in the liver for 1-2 years, causing damage by migration and feeding on blood
’ Issues with treating dairy cows
The choice of drugs for use in lactating cattle is restricted and most can only be used during the dry period. Therefore, unless you have a clinically ill animal, you will probably only want to treat at drying off. This may not be particularly effective as when you treat a cow that then continues to graze on fl ukey pasture, she will get infected again straight away. However, when treating when cows are housed, the cow will stay fl uke free until grazing again. Also, the cow will not re-infect the pasture with eggs for the fi rst few months after turnout. So there is more benefi t from treating when cows are housed. But for dairy cows, treatment at drying off alone is not going to be enough to prevent production losses.
Research at the University of Liverpool
We are currently working on several different fl uke-related projects with CIS:
•Investigation of the effect of liver fl uke on the bovine TB skin test
•Investigation of fl ukicide resistance in sheep
•Immune responses of cows and calves when infected with fl uke
•Genetics of fl uke and how this varies between sheep and cattle fl uke in the UK
•Modelling work to improve forecasting of fl uke
•Investigation of snail habitats and on farm fl uke risk
THE JOURNAL JUNE 2015 39
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