Australia-Liver fluke in sheep.

LIVER FLUKE EPIDEMIC.

Dreaded liver fluke is in 60 pc of the farms on the eastern seaboard of Australia despite the years of drought.

These figures according to the Virbac Animal Health study recently completed on 500 properties, using the latest in technology.

April and May are the times fluke is normally picked up by sheep and cattle, when the autumn rains arrive. The parasite’s host snail can survive drought by going underground, then becomes unearthed by the rain.

The parasite which is alive and around the size of a thumb nail, goes through the digestive system and lodges itself in the liver, where the feed on the food extracts and blood of the animal causing a severe loss in condition.

The livers are not fit for human consumption, when the animal is slaughtered and the livers known as corded livers, because the veins in which the flukes are living in swell up like cords and vibrate with the movements of the parasites.

Early treatment is essential, to prevent severe weight loss in beef and dairy cattle.

Goats can eat the parasites with immunity and for this reason years ago, farmers would always run 2/3 goats with the sheep, in each field in Europe.

Research has shown that drugs poured into the animal orally, are far more effective than those poured on the animals back, as the higher concentration hits the parasite harder.