With farmers facing significant livestock losses from liver fluke, AHDB Beef & Lamb and Moredun Research Institute have partnered to help improve understanding and develop effective control methods.
Liver fluke continues to be a problem for many sheep and cattle farmers across the UK. Livestock become infected by eating grass contaminated with fluke cysts shed from mud snails found in damp, marshy areas of pasture. Infection is very common and even low levels can lead to serious losses in production.
The animated video – which was launched on the AHDB stand at yesterday’s National Sheep Association (NSA) Sheep Event 2018 – demonstrates to farmers the importance of having an appreciation of the liver fluke life cycle, as well as available diagnostic, treatment and control options that are key to fluke risk assessment and sustainable control on farm.
Katie Thorley, AHDB’s senior knowledge transfer manager, said: “The video will help make farmers more aware of the potential losses they could face by not putting an effective control plan in place to prevent liver fluke disease.
“As the symptoms can often be hard to spot, it’s important to speak to the abattoir to check the condition of livers and then discuss with your vet to make sure you are treating an outbreak correctly.”
Dr Philip Skuce, principal scientist and fluke specialist at Moredun, added: “We hope our new ‘Fight the Fluke’ animation, produced in partnership with AHDB, will help get these complex but key messages of liver fluke control across in an informative and entertaining way, that is easy to understand and remember.”
