Hi everyone
I recently took two heifers to the butchers and both of them had liver fluke and the livers were quite bad according to the butcher so he advised me to get the rest of mine wormed.
As i had only had these heifers for a few months could this have come off my land or had they already got it when i bought them?
What should i use to treat them with? They have been running with the bull so hopefully are pregnant so i don't want to give them anything that will affect the foetus.
Regards Ian Hornsby
Beechmount Dexters
Liver fluke
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Louisa Gidney
- Posts: 857
- Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:00 am
- Contact:
I had a beef liver condemned with fluke after the hottest driest summer. Apparently a lot of sheep livers were being condemned too. Butcher thought it had more to do with the inexperience of the meat inspectors than the health of the animals. Conversely, after a wet summer, all passed no probs.
So do make sure it's the slaughterer, not the inspector giving you advice.
So do make sure it's the slaughterer, not the inspector giving you advice.
Zanfara Dexters
Tow Law
Co. Durham
Tow Law
Co. Durham
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Duncan MacIntyre
- Posts: 2372
- Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:38 am
- Location: Isle of Bute, Scotland, UK
Hello Ian,
the prepatent period for fluke, that is, the time from the cow eating the immature to the presence of adult fluke in the liver giving eggs down the bile duct into the gut, is about 13 weeks. That may help pinpoint whether the fluke seen was got before or after you bought the cattle. Obviously I do not have any local knowledge of your area, but generally over the UK in the last few years the range and severity of fluke has been increasing. Our area here has always been fairly bad, but it is definitely worse now than it was, and quite a number of our dairy farmers now have to treat their cows, which never used to be done. This is not good because none of the licenced products have a milk withhold time so we end up treating them as they dry off rather than dosing the whole herd at the right time, so control not so good.
As far as I am aware none of the licenced products have any contraindication for pregnant cattle. The main compounds used are triclabendazole, closantel, clorsulon and nitroxynil. They have different efficiencies against adult and immature fluke, with triclabendazole being the most efficient with activity against fluke down to just a few days old. Unfortunately there are instances of resistance to it, so the products are probably best rotated, you own vet should be able to advise what is best practice locally.
Dung samples can be tested for fluke eggs, but obviously not seen in infections less than 13 weeks. Even a few eggs present is significant. Blood samples can also be used now to give an indication.
When we had a local slaughterhouse I did all the inspection and was astonished at the number of well finished cattle and sheep which had a significant fluke burden, and a large percentage of livers were condemned. This is not just the loss of the liver of course because it was almost certainly slowing the weight gain.
Fluke are usually of the Fasciola Hepatica variety and the same ones affect cattle sheep and occasionally horses. Humans have been known to be infected by eating such stuff as wild watercress with insufficient washing. They use a snail, a very small species of snail, called Limnea Truncatula, as an imtermediate host and multiply in the snail as well as the livestock. They need the wet areas for the snails to be present but even in dry pasture there is often some small wet patch and that can be enough to keep levels up. Of course in dry weather the wet areas may be greenest so get grazed disproportionatley.But wet years are usually worst.
Duncan
the prepatent period for fluke, that is, the time from the cow eating the immature to the presence of adult fluke in the liver giving eggs down the bile duct into the gut, is about 13 weeks. That may help pinpoint whether the fluke seen was got before or after you bought the cattle. Obviously I do not have any local knowledge of your area, but generally over the UK in the last few years the range and severity of fluke has been increasing. Our area here has always been fairly bad, but it is definitely worse now than it was, and quite a number of our dairy farmers now have to treat their cows, which never used to be done. This is not good because none of the licenced products have a milk withhold time so we end up treating them as they dry off rather than dosing the whole herd at the right time, so control not so good.
As far as I am aware none of the licenced products have any contraindication for pregnant cattle. The main compounds used are triclabendazole, closantel, clorsulon and nitroxynil. They have different efficiencies against adult and immature fluke, with triclabendazole being the most efficient with activity against fluke down to just a few days old. Unfortunately there are instances of resistance to it, so the products are probably best rotated, you own vet should be able to advise what is best practice locally.
Dung samples can be tested for fluke eggs, but obviously not seen in infections less than 13 weeks. Even a few eggs present is significant. Blood samples can also be used now to give an indication.
When we had a local slaughterhouse I did all the inspection and was astonished at the number of well finished cattle and sheep which had a significant fluke burden, and a large percentage of livers were condemned. This is not just the loss of the liver of course because it was almost certainly slowing the weight gain.
Fluke are usually of the Fasciola Hepatica variety and the same ones affect cattle sheep and occasionally horses. Humans have been known to be infected by eating such stuff as wild watercress with insufficient washing. They use a snail, a very small species of snail, called Limnea Truncatula, as an imtermediate host and multiply in the snail as well as the livestock. They need the wet areas for the snails to be present but even in dry pasture there is often some small wet patch and that can be enough to keep levels up. Of course in dry weather the wet areas may be greenest so get grazed disproportionatley.But wet years are usually worst.
Duncan
Duncan MacIntyre
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute