NSA, Elanco and Moredun Webinar 2 - Sustainable Parasite Control: Test Don’t Guess
Date: 5th August 2020
Time: 8.30am
Location: Webinar
The 5th August saw the Moredun Foundation, Elanco, and NSA come together to deliver the second in a series of webinars on internal parasite control, this one focussed on Liver Fluke. The webinar attracted nearly 200 attendees and was chaired by Kevin Harrison, Chair of SCOPS and also NSA English committee chairman. The overarching theme of this webinar, and the first one on PGE, stomach worm control, was ‘Test don’t Guess’, making the case that we need to be using testing techniques to understand the problems we are aiming to overcome – and furthermore to test to check on the effectiveness of any treatments particularly in light of growing anthelmintic resistance.
NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker was the first speaker and explained the meaning of productivity and why managing parasites effectively contributes to improving productivity and profitability. After an overview of the VIDA Veterinary Surveillance data on Fluke related deaths in sheep Phil also explained why land management and environmental factors can sometimes help productivity but also present additional challenges such as in areas of wet ‘habitat land’ that are good habitats for the mud snail, the intermediate host for Liver Fluke. Moredun Institutes’ Philip Skuce was the second speaker, explaining the life cycle of Fluke, clinical signs, and going on to explain how the NADIS Fluke forecasting index worked. Philip discussed the diagnostic options and their strengths and weaknesses. 3rd and final speaker was Elancos’ Matt Colston who covered farm and field risk assessments, testing procedures, and treatments options. Phil Stocker comments “This short series of partnership delivered webinars have been a great success and Id like to thank everyone involved, in particular a few people ‘behind the scenes’ who made everything run so smoothly and enjoyably. The attendance, and comments provided, suggest they were just what the doctor ordered, or maybe in this case the sheep farmer!”.
