Using a Pre-Housing Dose as youngstock parasite control strategy

Youngstock going into their first or second winter have not developed a strong immunity against lung and stomach worms yet and their performance and growth during the winter housing may benefit from an anthelmintic treatment at the end of the grazing season. Significant exposure to parasites during the grazing season is evidenced by:

• calves and yearlings not achieving weight targets

• Pooled dung samples showing elevated worm egg or larva counts

• Dirty tail heads, diarrhoea or coughing

A Pre-Housing Dose is a strategy to control parasites in youngstock while still at grass and at the same time enabling a worm-free winter. The clear wormers are the products of choice for the Pre-Housing Dose. All of the clear wormers have persistent action, which means they will kill worms ingested by cattle for a number of weeks following dosing. Because of the persistent action, you have the option to dose grazing youngstock a few weeks before housing and they would still enter the housing period virtually free of worms and the best option for this would be products containing the active ingredient Doramectin or Moxidectin. These products can be given to youngstock 4 to 5 weeks before the end of the grazing season and will allow animals to recover from the effects of stomach worms and lungworm before being housed. Resulting in improved weight gain at grass and a clean set of lungs better equipped to fight off pneumonia during the winter.

First Published: 11 October 2021