On paper, pour-on clear wormers tick a lot of boxes.
- They’re convenient to use, with less stress on farmer and animal relative to injectable or oral formulations.
- They are effective against all of the important internal worms that concern us as cattle farmers, as well as external parasites like lice and mange mites.
- They offer persistent activity, meaning that they remove worms from the animal at treatment, as well as protecting from reinfection for a period after use.
- They have relatively short meat withdrawals.
- In general, they are cheap.
That said, we need to get smarter as an industry on worming animals. Overuse of any wormer product will lead to an inevitable build up of resistance. This is where the worms evolve to become resistant to our product and it fails to fully eradicate populations in an animal at treatment. An eradication of less than 95% of the worms present qualifies as a resistant population.
Resistance is not a freak phenomenon - it is simple evolution. The worm species are evolving to cope with challenges in their environment.
The rate of reproduction of a species governs the speed at which evolution will happen. Humans have evolved slowly, over thousands of years because of the age at which we typically reproduce. Worms reproduce at 3-4 weeks of age.
Worms that build resistance to a single active ingredient will, in general, be killed by an active in a different wormer class.
So, to avoid resistance to products like Animec Pour-On developing, we should rotate between classes in a given year when using them.
For example:
Scenario A - 'Farmer likes pour-ons at housing'
If a farmer likes to use Pour-On at housing time, because of the effects against external parasites as well as internal worms, he or she should use products like Albex (white wormer) or Chanaverm (yellow wormer) during the grazing season where needed.
Scenario B - 'Want to reduce handlings during the grazing season'
If animals are outdoors, without access to quality handling facilities, and labour is an issue, a farmer might opt to use Animec Pour-On during the grazing season given that it is easy and safe to apply. The fact that it offers persistent activity is also of benefit here because the farmer will, in theory, need to dose the animals less frequently than if he or she used white or yellow drenches. In this case, where the farmer wants to treat animals again at housing time, he or she should opt for a wormer like Albex, instead of using the Pour-On again. Adding a synthetic pyrethroid product such as deltamethrin to the housing treatment plan will eradicate the external parasites of concern in this case.
Keep learning
On paper, pour-on clear wormers tick a lot of boxes.
- They’re convenient to use, with less stress on farmer and animal relative to injectable or oral formulations.
- They are effective against all of the important internal worms that concern us as cattle farmers, as well as external parasites like lice and mange mites.
- They offer persistent activity, meaning that they remove worms from the animal at treatment, as well as protecting from reinfection for a period after use.
- They have relatively short meat withdrawals.
- In general, they are cheap.
That said, we need to get smarter as an industry on worming animals. Overuse of any wormer product will lead to an inevitable build up of resistance. This is where the worms evolve to become resistant to our product and it fails to fully eradicate populations in an animal at treatment. An eradication of less than 95% of the worms present qualifies as a resistant population.
Resistance is not a freak phenomenon - it is simple evolution. The worm species are evolving to cope with challenges in their environment.
The rate of reproduction of a species governs the speed at which evolution will happen. Humans have evolved slowly, over thousands of years because of the age at which we typically reproduce. Worms reproduce at 3-4 weeks of age.
Worms that build resistance to a single active ingredient will, in general, be killed by an active in a different wormer class.
So, to avoid resistance to products like Animec Pour-On developing, we should rotate between classes in a given year when using them.
For example:
Scenario A - 'Farmer likes pour-ons at housing'
If a farmer likes to use Pour-On at housing time, because of the effects against external parasites as well as internal worms, he or she should use products like Albex (white wormer) or Chanaverm (yellow wormer) during the grazing season where needed.
Scenario B - 'Want to reduce handlings during the grazing season'
If animals are outdoors, without access to quality handling facilities, and labour is an issue, a farmer might opt to use Animec Pour-On during the grazing season given that it is easy and safe to apply. The fact that it offers persistent activity is also of benefit here because the farmer will, in theory, need to dose the animals less frequently than if he or she used white or yellow drenches. In this case, where the farmer wants to treat animals again at housing time, he or she should opt for a wormer like Albex, instead of using the Pour-On again. Adding a synthetic pyrethroid product such as deltamethrin to the housing treatment plan will eradicate the external parasites of concern in this case.
Keep learning