Liver Fluke Threat Goes Critical Across the Country

UK - Liver fluke is already affecting large numbers of grazing cattle and sheep across the country this season and needs urgent autumn management attention if losses are to be minimised, warns EBLEX, the industry body for beef and lamb levy-payers in England.
calendar icon 18 August 2009
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Meat Hygiene Service records showing relatively high infection levels are confirmed by abattoirs having to reject over 50 per cent of cattle livers for fluke in many cases. And a number of producers are receiving slaughter reports of infected stock for the first time ever, reports Stackyard.

According to Stackyard, the current threat posed by liver fluke is highlighted in the latest monthly forecast from the National Animal Disease Information Service (NADIS) which predicts a high to very high prevalence of disease across all parts of England except the south and east as well as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland over the autumn if wet conditions persist.

The NADIS forecast – with regular updates available at www.nadis.org.uk – clearly attributes this year’s particularly high fluke risk to the third wet summer in a row, pointing out that the high levels of infection recorded in 2008 and the very wet snail-friendly conditions of last autumn will have meant large numbers of infected snails over-wintering.

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