Farmers told to make most of Defra pathway fund and worming check

Sheep farmers should make the most of funding from Defra's Animal Health & Welfare Pathway to optimise the timing of the worming treatment check, experts have said.

Eligible livestock farmers in England can currently access £436 million funding for a vet-led health and welfare review, as well as a worming treatment check.

While the vet review focuses on issues most appropriate for an individual flock, the worming treatment check is designed specifically to determine the effectiveness of an anthelmintic (worming) treatment on a farm.

The Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) group said the treatment check was not a definitive test for anthelmintic resistance.

However, the expert group added that it would help farmers to understand which wormer groups were working effectively on the farm.

Eligible farmers have six months from the point of registration to complete the worming treatment check.

Speaking on behalf of SCOPS, independent sheep consultant Lesley Stubbings said: “The important thing to remember is that you should only carry it out on lambs that you know need to be treated because their worm burden is high enough.

"Ideally, this means carrying out a faecal egg count (FEC) before starting the Worming Treatment Check, so you can make sure the timing is optimal.

"You cannot check the effectiveness of a treatment at killing adult worms if there are not enough worms present in the first place.”

The worming treatment check consists of two FECs. One is taken at the time of treatment to measure the number of adult roundworms present in the lambs.

A second is then taken at a set interval after treatment and the difference determines how effective the treatment has been at killing the worms in the sheep.

Participating farmers will receive a sampling kit, instructions explaining how to take good samples and packaging with pre-paid postage back to the lab.

Ms Stubbings explained: “It is very important the worming treatment check is carried out at an appropriate time, for example in June/July when there are lambs at pasture with a FEC that indicates they require treatment.

"A minimum FEC of 250 eggs per gram is needed for the test to be worthwhile, so discuss with your vet or adviser doing some monitoring ahead of the using the check.

The worming treatment check must be carried out by an accredited laboratory, listed on the Defra website.

The lab will send out kits with instructions enabling farmers to collect their own samples to post back, then a report will be provided.