High risk year for liver fluke

SRUC vets issued the warning, and said that the combination of a wet September and higher numbers of mud snails infected by the fluke parasite than usual, meant that farmers would be well-advised to take steps to minimise illness in livestock.

Mud snails live in boggy or wet areas, and play an essential part of the life cycle of the liver fluke parasite, as the eggs produced by the parasite pass out in animal dung, and hatch into larvae and live inside the snails for a while before they emerge to stick onto blades of grass, where they form cysts, and are then eaten by livestock.

Dumfries-based SRUC vet, Heather Stevenson, explained: "September is proving to be a wet month – as much rain fell in Dumfries on September 8 and 9 as for the whole of September 2015.

"Increased areas of wet ground can lead to an increase in mud snail numbers. In addition, our recent snail count in the local area showed 20% of them to be infected with the fluke parasite, compared to 4% at the same time last year.

"Our current advice would therefore be to plan for a high risk year. We would advise farmers to move stock, particularly sheep, off high risk fields as soon as possible," she said. "Sheep should be treated by mid-October and before the start of November at the absolute latest."

SRUC has an online technical note providing up to date information for both vets and farmers at http://www.sruc.ac.uk/downloads/file/3135/tn677_treatment_and_control_of_liver_fluke.