Why is a spring liver fluke treatment essential for effective fluke control?

Traditionally, cattle graziers have given an annual liver fluke treatment to all classes of cattle in April/May. This is to remove any liver fluke picked up from pasture grazed over the previous Summer/Autumn period. Whilst this treatment is essential in any liver fluke strategic control program, it is a reactive treatment and does very little to prevent pasture contamination of infective fluke cysts (metacercariae) for the following year.

A spring liver fluke treatment in late August/early September is essential to remove any adult liver fluke that have matured over the winter months and will minimise pasture contamination with liver fluke eggs. This is important at this time as the environmental conditions will be conducive for egg hatching and the intermediate host snail (Lymnaea spp.) will become more active.

Each adult egg laying liver fluke present in the animal that goes uncontrolled into spring is capable of producing up to 50,000 eggs/day. These eggs then hatch into miracidia which can infect the intermediate host snail. For every miracidia that infects a host snail, up to 4000 cercariae (which develop into infective fluke cysts) can be produced. That's heavy pasture contamination.

By treating cattle in early spring for liver fluke, farmers will dramatically reduce the number of infective fluke cysts on the pasture during the following Spring/Autumn period. This will reduce the number of liver fluke infecting animals and will reduce production losses associated with liver fluke infection.

What are the production losses in cattle associated with liver fluke infection?

• Decreased growth rates (Up to 1.2kg/hd/week)
• Decreased Feed Conversion Efficiency
• Decreased fertility (Up to 16%)
• Decreased milk production (Up to 0.6Uhd/day)
• Increased incidence of condemned livers at slaughter

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