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In addition to my own flock, I manage a small flock of crossbred ewes. These sheep are run on about 40 acres that have had nothing but sheep on them for a decade or so. The parasite problem is terrible there, due in large part to poor management by a previous shepherd. I manage parasites in my own flock mostly by rotating pastures and multi-species grazing; I worm my own ewes maybe twice a year. I can and do run regular fecals on them.

 

This other flock... gah! They need to be wormed often. Four to six times a year, at least. That might not be much for some places, but around here, it's a lot. AFAIK, the only thing the previous manager ever used was ivermectin, and it's now pretty much ineffective there. I've used Valbazen & Cydectin, but I'd like to get away from those to avoid building resistance.

 

What else is there that works? I'm not opposed to off-label use.

 

The folks who own this flock refuse to let me move at least the lambs to other pastures. I'm working on a plan to run chickens behind the sheep to help clean up, and I've been selecting hard for parasite resistance (before I took over, there were basically no standards for selecting replacements). I've cut down the number of sheep there, as well, to allow for less re-grazing, although at this point, the parasite load is so heavy, it hardly matters. I'd say they should just get rid of the sheep for a while, but the job pays well!

 

Thanks!

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Hi Ben,

 

The only other drench labeled for sheep in the US is levamasole, which is currently unavailable due to loss of manufacturing capacity in the Chinese earthquake.

 

Some folks use Safeguard cattle dewormer, which uses the active ingredient fenbendazole, which is in the same family as Valbazen's albendazole, so using it in a rotation will not delay resistance.

 

I've recently heard that Agrilabs, which sells levamasole sheep drench under the brand name Prohibit, has located a new manufacturer but is awaiting FDA approval of the plant. No certain timeline is available, but it sounds like months, not years.

 

If the lambs are being sold into the food chain, you do need to think about off-label use if only from a liability standpoint. I wouldn't go off label on any food animal without specific instructions regarding dosing, withdrawal, etc., from a vet.

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I'd forgotten I posted this thread :rolleyes:

 

Bill, I stick to on-label for the market lambs. It's the ewes who need some help. I really cracked down last year and culled most of the ewes who just couldn't handle the parasites. I have a few more that I've added to the list for this year.

 

I was wondering why I couldn't find levamasole anywhere. Nuts!

 

Lenajo, could you give more info on copper bolusing? We have very deficient soils here, and our sheep can handle more copper in their minerals than is normally recommended. I know when we added copper to our goats' diets, their parasite loads dropped way down.

 

I've read about using & talked to folks who use garlic as a wormer. It seems to work where the parasite load is low, but it's a lot of labor to get it into the sheep- peel garlic, make into a slurry thin enough to go through a drench gun, drench, refill reservoir- it takes a LOT of garlic slurry to worm sheep, apparently. My BIL grows a ton of garlic every year (I'm not kidding- he markets it), so I have ready access to his "cull" heads for free, so I might try the garlic thing on my own flock.

 

Back to planning how to fund running broilers behind the sheep...

 

Thanks!

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I'd forgotten I posted this thread :rolleyes:

 

Bill, I stick to on-label for the market lambs. It's the ewes who need some help. I really cracked down last year and culled most of the ewes who just couldn't handle the parasites. I have a few more that I've added to the list for this year.

 

I was wondering why I couldn't find levamasole anywhere. Nuts!

 

Lenajo, could you give more info on copper bolusing? We have very deficient soils here, and our sheep can handle more copper in their minerals than is normally recommended. I know when we added copper to our goats' diets, their parasite loads dropped way down.

 

I've read about using & talked to folks who use garlic as a wormer. It seems to work where the parasite load is low, but it's a lot of labor to get it into the sheep- peel garlic, make into a slurry thin enough to go through a drench gun, drench, refill reservoir- it takes a LOT of garlic slurry to worm sheep, apparently. My BIL grows a ton of garlic every year (I'm not kidding- he markets it), so I have ready access to his "cull" heads for free, so I might try the garlic thing on my own flock.

 

Back to planning how to fund running broilers behind the sheep...

 

Thanks!

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This is from Wild & Woolly

published by University of Maryland Cooperative Extension

 

Research . . .

Garlic Fails to Control Worms in Goats and Sheep

There is some speculation that garlic may stimulate the immune system of an animal and that long-term exposure to garlic may lead to a lower susceptibility to gastro-intestinal nematodes (worms). However, garlic failed to control internal parasites in goats and sheep in separate studies in Arkansas and Delaware.

 

In Arkansas, 14 Spanish and Spanish x Boer doe kids were administered water (control group) or a commercially-available, certified-organic garlic product, garlic juice. The does were maintained in outside pens and fed bermudagrass hay and a corn/soybean supplement.

 

Fecal and blood samples were collected 0, 7, and 14 days after treatment. There were no significant differences in fecal egg counts (FEC) or packed cell volume (PCV) between the treatment groups.

 

In another experiment, 29 Spanish doe kids were administered water, garlic juice, or fed garlic bulbs. These goats were maintained on bermudagrass pasture. Fecal and blood samples were collected 0, 7, and 14 days after treatment There were no significant differences in fecal egg counts (FEC) or packed cell volume (PCV) between the treatment groups.

 

 

Source: Veterinary Parasitology. February 2009.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Two experiments were conducted at Delaware State University to evaluate the efficacy of garlic in reducing fecal egg counts in sheep and goats.

 

In the first experiment, 18 Katahdin ewe lambs were placed in individual pens and administered either 3 ml of garlic juice or water for 21 days. Weekly fecal samples were collected. There was no effect of treatment with garlic juice.

 

In the second experiment, 23 crossbred Boer kids were placed into treatment groups based on their FAMACHA© scores. 12 goats received a single treatment of 0.16 ounces of garlic juice; 11 did not. Fecal egg counts were higher in the garlic-treated goats than the untreated groups.

 

Delaware State University will continue to conduct studies to evaluate the efficacy of potential natural plant dewormers, including garlic.

 

Sources: Abstracts, American Society of Animal Science Southern Section. February 2009.

 

and then there is this

Pumpkin kernel and garlic as alternative treatments for the control of Haemonchus contortus in sheep

V. J. Strickland A , G. L. Krebs B , D and W. Potts C

 

A School of Agriculture and Environment, Curtin University of Technology, PMB 1, Northam, WA 6401, Australia.

B EH Graham Centre, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia.

C Specialty Feeds Pty Ltd, 3150 Great Eastern Highway, Glen Forrest, WA 6071, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: gkrebs@csu.edu.au

 

 

Abstract

Two alternative remedies for controlling Haemonchus contortus in sheep (pumpkin kernel and garlic) were investigated. The experiment involved 18 4-month-old Merino ram lambs with six lambs per treatment group. The lambs were initially drenched to render them worm free, and then infected with 4000 L3 H. contortus larvae, 2 weeks later. Four weeks after infection, faecal egg counts were performed and lambs were allocated into treatment groups and fed their respective diets (control, pumpkin kernel or garlic) for 2 weeks. The lambs were combined into a single group grazing pasture for the last week of the experiment. Faecal worm egg counts (WEC) were carried out weekly for 3 weeks following allocation to treatment diets. Clinical signs of infection observed included liveweight, body condition score and voluntary feed intake.

 

The pumpkin kernel treatment resulted in a 65.5% decrease in the initial level of WEC, but this increased back to the initial level as soon as animals came off treatment. The garlic resulted in a 64.4% decrease in WEC from the initial level and this increased slightly (to 25.5% of the initial level and 43.5% lower than the control) when the animals came off treatment, suggesting that there was a residual effect of the garlic and/or that the garlic had an effect beyond decreasing the fecundity of the parasites. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between treatments in liveweight, body condition score or voluntary feed intake. Throughout the experiment voluntary feed intake and liveweight increased while body condition scores remained stable.

 

We concluded that pumpkin kernel and garlic show potential for parasite control by affecting the fecundity of the parasites. Our results also indicate that with good nutrition lambs can cope with high parasite burdens and still be productive during the early stages of infection.

 

Animal Production Science 49(2) 139–144

 

Submitted: 30 November 2007 Accepted: 23 October 2008 Published: 20 January 2009

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