Five things to do on a rainy weekend.
1. Fluke the calves and young stock 2. Fluke the bull 3. Fluke the lambs
4. Fluke the rams – and for a bit of variety…5. Dehorn a six month old calf
Fasciola hepatica – liver fluke
Let me explain.
We have wet land. One of the problems on land such as ours is a parasite called liver fluke. I have a derogation from the Soil Association to carry out routine drenching of my stock with a flukicide.
In organic farming systems we are careful to encourage stock to build up a natural resistance to worms and don’t carry out routine worming. The practice of routine worming has had dire consequences over the years in breeding for worms with a resistance to wormers. On my farm I carry out a faecal egg count before I worm (to show if there is a problem or not) and one after worming to make sure there isn’t a resistance building up.
Liver fluke is different kettle of fish and animals to not build a resistance. Sheep are more adversely affected than cattle, though on land such as this I’ve known people nearly lose cattle as a result of fluke. Drenching a few weeks after the cattle are housed is an optimum time.
The life cycle of the liver fluke is very complicated. Here’s a simplified version.
1. The adult liver fluke in the liver of its host produces eggs which pass onto the pasture
2. These eggs hatch in warm damp conditions to produce mobile larvae (miracidia) which then infect a particular species of snail
3. The larvae multiply within in the snail and develop into another swimming stage (cercaria), which emerge from the snail and settle on the pasture
4. These then develop into a highly tolerant non-mobile stage (metacercaria) that can survive for at least a year. Once eaten by the cow these hatch and migrate to the liver…and so the cycle begins again. The snail is the vital ingredient – no snail, no fluke. Fluke can also affect humans.
Drenching is a time consuming business. We separate off the different groups of cattle. Each group is run down the cattle race separately, where they are individually held in the cattle crush. Some strong, able body (Robert) holds the animals head up high and I administer the drench. Not too bad with the youngsters, but with a bull who weighs in at well over a tonne it’s a different matter. Mr Big – the bull – scarily flexes the side of the race and is almost too tall and wide to fit into our crush. To crank his head up we needed two halters and the use of his nose ring. I would love to have taken some photos but I was too busy making sure we, and Mr Big, survived to tell the tail. We did and so did he.
18 comments
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December 4, 2007 at 9:28 am
Jane
Yuk! it quite put me off my cornflakes… really interesting though!
December 4, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Mopsa
It’s strange – most of the snails I see on the farm edge up to the house – they don’t seem to exist in any great numbers in the field ditches where I’d expect to see them enjoying the damp. I suspect they are there in their thousands and just hide when they hear me coming.
December 5, 2007 at 3:53 am
heidi
AAhg! When I think about all the fresh watercress I ate straight from our creek, the creek that cut through a well used cow pasture…Oh well, guess there wasn’t a fluke infestation on the farm back in ’77. Lucky me.
December 5, 2007 at 9:12 am
paula
Not pleasant at all, Jane, and a real problem on this type of land, especially after the summer wetness. Still, hopefully all done and dusted now.
December 5, 2007 at 9:22 am
paula
I don’t think you’d notice these, Mopsa, they’re only 12mm long and live in all the wet and/or poached patches in the fields as well. Ducks eat them though and don’t become infected.
In fact when I was farming in the mid seventies and organic system were thought of as very weird as was the Soil Association, the SA advised me to get a flock of ducks to help with the problem as they didn’t approve of flukicides. Good advice, perhaps, on a couple of acres but not a farm!
December 5, 2007 at 9:32 am
paula
Fluke and watercress can still be a problem for some growers, though I think that fast flowing water through the cress beds helps, and of course now there are all kinds of health and safety checks!
But fresh watercress is very alluring, Heidi!
December 6, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Liz Jamieson
This reminds me of an ‘O’ level Biology lesson. This fluke of yours has the same life-cycle as the tape worm – via the snail and partial to life in watercress. Our Biology teacher had one removed (a tape worm) from her own gut, and kept it pickled in a jar in the lab. I have always been extremely careful about watercress ever since.
December 8, 2007 at 12:52 pm
paula
The tapeworm that causes problems for my stock is Dipylidium caninum – The Dog Tapeworm – whose life cycle is different from the Diphyllobothrium latum – The Broad Fish Tapeworm – which is the one you were familiarised with in your graphic biology lesson!
We humans are susceptible to the dog tapeworm too and for both humans and sheep it’s the cysts that cause the problem especially if they settle in the brain, eye or liver.
A link for all different tapeworms’ life cycles is http://home.austarnet.com.au/wormman/wltape.htm
Happy reading!
December 13, 2007 at 10:10 pm
farmingfriends
Thank you for this excellent post very informative and useful. I know where to come when i need info on cattle illnesses!
Sara from farmingfriends
December 14, 2007 at 9:39 pm
paula
I’m gald you…well, ‘enjoyed’ wouldn’t exactly be the right word, so let’s say, found it interesting, Sara!
Thanks for poping by.
January 10, 2008 at 3:38 am
Steph
I have a question–probably because I’m fearful and paranoid: I eat a lot of watercress. I like the taste. I buy it at the supermarket. I rinse it in water and then saute it. Tonight, I saw something on it that looked like tiny snails, but that didn’t make sense to me, so I washed it with soap and water and cooked it longer than usual. Then, I looked up watercress and found out about something called liver fluke. Now, my question is this: am I now infected with liver fluke?
January 10, 2008 at 12:51 pm
paula
Steph – it does sound a bit like the fluke snail from you description. Though it’s very unusual for commercial watercress to have it nowadays. Could be something to do with the very wet summer and the floods.
I think with all the precautions you’ve taken you should be okay, but please check with your doctor just to be on the safe side.
I would also let the supermarket know as they should inform the grower as this would be considered a health risk if it were fluke.
Don’t worry – if by any chance you have picked it up it is treatable, especially if found early.
January 23, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Vera
I was surfing trying to find out as much as possible about Liver Fluke, when I came across your blog, its nice to know how others handle these sort of situations. We like yourselves are organic farmers, but in East Anglia, and have just had Liver Fluke testing done and find our cattle have this problem, they probably picked it up when grazing on the marshes last summer, but we have never had a problem with Liver Fluke before. So over the next few days we too will have the joy of trying to treat the beasties, although how we will get on with dosing our bull is quite a daunting prospect as he doesn’t fit in the crush very well either. But he is quite a good breeder, two sets of male twins and two beautiful heifers from four easy calvings. Here’s hoping our remaining calvings go as easily, and that you have the same.
January 31, 2008 at 9:08 pm
paula
Vera, I’m so sorry I haven’t replied till now – as you may have gathered we’ve been away for ten days and I’m just getting back into the swing of things.
I’m glad you’ve found my blog – do keep in touch to exchange ideas and thoughts. It’s always good to have someone to bounce things off.
Fluke is a bugger. And I’m sure you’re right about picking it up from the marshes, as even you were wet this summer (I have a son who lives in that part of the world). An added bonus is it’s meant to help bTB test results – well, that’s the latest old wives tale that’s doing the rounds down here – and I know people that swear by it. Though I don’t believe you’re a bTB area up there are you?
Anyway hope it all went well and the bull behaved. Good luck with the calving, sounds as if you have some bonny calves – what breed?
Call again.
February 7, 2008 at 12:56 am
Vera
You’re right Paula, we are luckily enough to be in a TB free area, but we are in the Bluetongue zone, although we don’t think our herd has been affected, the early outbreaks were fairly close to us
Bluetongue is such a new problem no-body really knows how the disease will manifest itself in future years and in the offspring. Many cattle apparantly, appear to have no symptoms with the disease.
Back to the fluke! most cattle treated over two days, and those in the top field are to be done on Friday, Some were as good as gold, others kicked up such a din you would have thought we were trying to cut their throats with a rusty razor, the bull was quite good, we only got his head into the crush and he wouldn’t go any further, but by getting a halter onto him and gates and a bar behind, he behaved well.
The cattle are mainly Aberdeen Angus, we started the pedigree herd when we gave up milk production 3.5 years ago. There are a few cross-breed limmys and a couple of Friesians, for good measure, and extra milk! for hungry calves – 2 more heifer calves born, and all the cows will allow any calf to suckle, although they give their own babies preference.
February 9, 2008 at 10:29 pm
paula
My sympathies are with you Vera. It’s one thing after another in such rapid succession now so we can’t rest on our laurels for a second. There was a time when the odd routine illness was the worst one could expect in the farming year, with catastrophes few and far between.
I’m glad you managed to fluke them all. I find getting their heads high enough to ensure the drench goes down the throat and isn’t projected into your face with a wad of cud as soon as you remove the gun, is the hardest part! We have to arrange a halter pulley for our bull and winch his head up as high as we can…his very forgiving, thank heavens!
Your cows sound lovely and generous with their milk – mine tend to use the first calvers as nurse maids and babysitters.
Good luck will be thinking of you.
May 15, 2008 at 8:28 pm
johne’s disease? « Locks Park Farm
[...] “yo-knees”), a disease you really don’t want in your herd, or parasitism, most likely fluke, both of which damage the liver. However it could be the result of a heart condition in which [...]
October 29, 2008 at 11:13 pm
in for winter… « Locks Park Farm
[...] heifers, and run through the crush to be weighed and drenched (given a dose of medicine orally) for fluke; a parasite prevalent on our wet land. The Soil Association has given us a derogation to do this. [...]