Worms

Defra-funded research project looks to help farmers to understand soil health by listening to the noises made by earthworms

Fasciola Hepatica

Dictyocaulus viviparus

Cooperia oncophora

Ostertagia ostertagi

Warm and wet weather this summer has raised the risk of lungworm infections in at-risk cattle.

Results from a recently published Elanco survey, conducted by Farmers Guardian, show only one in five sheep farmers are following current Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) advice and incorporating a newer wormer active into worming programmes, raising concerns about the rate at which wormer resistance is continuing to develop.

With current subsidy payments gradually being phased out, there will be little margin for error for sheep farmers. Maximising productivity and efficiency will become increasingly critical to business resilience, and farmers will need to seek every opportunity to make incremental gains in flock performance.

SCOPS, with the backing and support of the Moredun Research Institute, the National Sheep Association and the Sheep Veterinary Society, has issued a letter to the sheep sector with renewed advice to farmers to include the newer group 4 and 5 wormers in their worm control plans now.