Parasite Control for Goats Meet the Enemy by The Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Part 1 of series Part 2 Managing the Barberpole Worm Part 3 Integrated Parasite Management With FAMACHA Part 4 Dewormers and Dewormer Resistance Part 5 Alternative dewormers -Do they work? Part 6 Doing Your Own Research and Fecal Egg Counts Internal Parsites (worms) cause more goats to die in the Southeastern U.S. than the total of the next three leading causes of goat deaths according to necropsy records from Kentucky State University. Controlling worms in goats is much more complex than controlling other goat diseases. Many other diseases can be controlled by simple management practices and vaccination. Many goat producers in the past have controlled worms solely by the use of dewormers, but now goats still die due to the worms developing resistance to the dewormer and some goat producers in the humid South have gone out of the goat business because no dewormer was effective against the worms in their goats. Goats have a lower immune response to worms than most other animals and therefore have greater problems with worms. There is a lot of disinformation on controlling worms which increases the problem. Our knowledge on controlling worms in sheep and goats has quadrupled in the last decade due to research in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and therefore many animal professionals may not be current on the recent developments. In fact, some of our old good management practices to control worms have been found to not be good and in some cases harmful. This is the first of a series of articles which will appear in the Goat Rancher over the next several months. The articles are written and reviewed by the consortium members which include a number of parasitologists with an interest in small ruminants and a number of small ruminant scientists so that the articles contain the most up to date and accurate information on parasites. This first article is an introduction to worms in sheep and goats. The next article discusses the life cycle of a goat worm and how we can use that knowledge reduce their numbers. The third article describes dewormers and the correct use of dewormers and focuses on the problem of dewormer resistance and what can be done. The fourth article describes the FAMACHA system for reducing dewormer resistance and selecting more resistant animals. The final article describes alternative (non-chemotherapeutic) methods for controlling worms and what supporting data is available.

The purpose of this series of articles is to teach the producer to assemble his or her worm control program, using applicable management practices as the first line of defense against worms and using dewormers only when management is not enough to control worms. Using this program, we can reduce the use of dewormers, reduce the rate at which worms develop dewormer resistance and select for animals which have genetic resistance against worms. This will enable the goat business to be sustainable in the face of dewormer resistance. Although there are more than 15 species of worms identified in goats, we will discuss the most economically important worms and parasites in goats and list some useful sources for further information. The most common worms in goats are gastrointestinal nematodes because they are nematodes which live in the digestive tract, predominantly the stomach and small intestine. In this first paper, we discuss several other worms including the tapeworm, the deer brain worm as well as coccidia and liver flukes which are other types of internal parasites in goats which can be important at times. Worms are a normal part of the animal's ecosystem. A low level of worms is desirable to keep the animal's immune system active against worms. However, excessive worms causes disease. Excessive worms are caused by such things as a depressed immune system, consuming too many worm larva, filth and lack of sanitation, rainfall, close grazing etc. Worms function in the ecosystem to keep animals from overrunning the ecosystem when production conditions are good and they also prevent all animals from starving when there is a shortage of food. One cannot eradicate worms on your farm; you have to learn how to live with them and use management to control them to levels which do not harm animal production. The most common worm (especially in the Southeastern US) that causes the majority of deaths as well as depressed animal performance is the Barber pole worm (scientific name Haemonchus contortus). In figure 1 is a picture of a fresh barberpole worm with red and white stripes like a barber pole. The red stripe is the gut which is filled with blood which he has sucked from the animal that he infects. The white stripe is the uterus which contains eggs. This pretty well describes the barber pole worm; he is a blood sucking-egg laying machine. He sucks about half to one drop of blood per day and produces 1,000-6,000 eggs per day. The barberpole worm can multiply rapidly under good conditions because of the large number of eggs that they lay. Since he sucks a half to one drops of blood per day, 1000 worms can suck two ounces of blood per day, two quarts in a month, which is why your goat will die from a heavy infection. The goat can make blood fast enough to replace that consumed by a low level of barberpole worm infection, but as the infection gets worse, the goat is unable to make components (red blood cells and blood protein) of blood fast enough to replace lost blood and the goat starts getting low on blood components. A low level of red blood cells (a component of blood) is called anemia ( a thin layer of blood is pale because of the loss of red blood cells). The percent red blood cells in the blood can be measured in the laboratory to determine the extent of anemia. You can determine if an animal has anemia by looking at the color of the mucous membranes of the animal. Mucous membranes are areas of tissue where the capillaries are close to the surface of the skin

and the color of the skin reflects the color of a thin layer of blood. When an animal becomes anemic these mucous membranes change from a healthy pink to a lighter pink and then if the anemia is severe, the mucous membranes will be white as a sheet of paper. When mucous membranes become white, the animal is critically low on blood and needs dewormed immediately. It must be remembered that other conditions that cause blood loss such as liver flukes or lice can also cause anemia. Mucous membranes that are easily observed are located on the inside of the lower eyelid (touching the eyeball), the gums (hard to see in animals with pigmentation in the mouth) and inside the vulva (often checked at goat dairies). A low level of blood protein also causes edema, due to a shortage of blood proteins to pull fluid back into the circulatory system. Edema is often seen as a pouch of fluid under the lower jaw. Angora goats may also get edema on the floor of the chest. When an animal gets edema, he is severely low on blood components and needs dewormed promptly. The barber pole worm is a tropical worm; he likes a warm climate and therefore, predominates in the South, although he can cause major problems in northern areas, but for a shorter period of time. These worms require rain to infect small ruminants and therefore are much less of a problem in the West or any location where there is less than 25" of rain per year. The barber pole worm also has a short generation interval, being able to complete a generation as quick as 4 weeks which enables him to develop dewormer resistance quicker than for most other worms. The barber pole worm is relatively large, and can easily be seen with the naked eye. He is about the diameter of paper clip wire and about an inch long. The barberpole worm pierces the stomach lining and establishes connections to small blood vessels to suck blood. If you open up the true stomach (abomasum) of a goat that has died from worms, you will see some floating free, but most are attached to the stomach and they may look like hair growing on the inside of the stomach. The barberpole worm will lose its coloration as it is exposed to air. The average lifespan of a worm in the stomach is 6 months, but they can live longer than a year. The animal's immune system is constantly fighting against the worms and may suppress egg production of the worm or cause it to die prematurely. The immune system on some occasions may have a hyperimmune response and eliminate most of the worms in the animal. There are barber pole worms in sheep and cattle. But the strain in cattle will not infect sheep or goats (and vice versa) except under unusual circumstances. There are two temperate species gastrointestinal nematodes which are important in goats and sheep. These are the Bankrupt worm (scientific name Trichostrongylus colubriformis) and Brown stomach worm (scientific name Telodorsagia circumcincta formerly known as Ostertagia). Although these worms do not kill as many goats as the barberpole worm, under some circumstances they can cause important production losses as well as death of the goat. Many of the management practices which suppress the barberpole worm will also suppress these worms. Since these worms are best adapted to temperate conditions, they are more of a problem in the fall and winter as compared to the barber pole worm which dominates in the summer. The main symptoms of a bankrupt worm or brown stomach worm infection is diarrhea , a slow

growing animal, a rough haircoat and an unthrifty animal. In the next article in this series, we will be discussing the life cycle of the gastrointestinal nematodes mentioned above with emphasis on management techniques that can be utilized to help control the parasites. The tapeworm is another worm that causes goat problems. It seldom kills goats, but causes poor performance, especially among young animals and may give them a potbellied appearance. Occasionally diarrhea is a symptom of tapeworms. Tapeworm segments can be readily observed in feces as they look like grains of rice making this parasite easy to diagnose. The general tapeworms that infect goats will infect sheep and occasionally cattle. Tapeworms are located in the small intestine and can grow to be several feet long. Tapeworms absorb nutrients from the digestive tract and therefore decrease nutrition available for the goat. The immune system of mature animals usually keeps the tapeworm suppressed. The tapeworm eggs are consumed by a grass mite (like a chigger) and the egg develops to an infective stage in the body cavity of the mite over a 1 to 4 month period. The goat then eats grass on which the mite is crawling and becomes infected. It takes 40 days from the time a goat consumes infected grass mites until the tape worm segments appear in feces. Pasture areas that are infected usually remain infected for some time although the mites may be killed by winter weather. Tapeworms are more of a problem under intensive production systems. If young animals get infected in a pasture, the general recommendation for cleaning the pasture up is to not graze a pasture for a year (make hay or graze with another species of animal). Tapeworms are not killed by all dewormers, but is controlled by the Benzamidole group of dewormers. Valbazen is one of the more popular dewormers used for tapeworm control. Coccidiosis is a common goat parasite that appears when animals are stressed or sanitation is lacking. It mainly causes diarrhea, but unlike cattle, blood is seldom seen in the feces. Coccidia are normally present at low numbers in the digestive tract of the animal, but the infection level is low and the immune system is able to prevent them from causing disease. Coccidiosis is a disease of stress and filth. The main route of infection is the consumption of feces due to uncleanliness. The animal is usually stressed, depressing the immune system. Coccidiosis is most commonly seen in just weaned kids due to stress, lack of a mature immune system and fecal contamination. Stressing animals by shipping is also a major cause coccidiosis. Animals often consume the infective stage coccidia from feces, such as fecal contamination in the feed trough or water trough. Moisture whether by rain or humidity increases the time that infective coccidia live. Therefore, keeping the goat's environment clean and dry will help prevent coccidiosis. During times of stress, a medicated feed containing Rumensin or Deccox can be fed which is quite effective at preventing coccidiosis. Occasionally coccidiosis will still occur despite feeding medicated feed, but fewer animals will be affected. Animals should be treated when diarrhea first starts if coccidiosis is suspected ( history of stress) because delaying treatment can result in scarring of the intestine and an poor-doing animal for

life. Coccidia are not observed when feces are examined under a microscope in early stages of disease, but they are very numerous later on. Coccidiosis may be treated with Corid (Amprolium) or Albon (Sulfadimethoxine). If Corid is used at too high a dose, or for too long a time, animals may develop a thiamine deficiency called polioencephalomalacia (animals behave like they are drunk) which can be readily treated with thiamine and removal of the Corid treatment. The meningeal worm or deer brain worm causes partial paralysis in goats, sheep and llamas that are exposed to the parasite by deer. The parasite occurs in deer and does not cause clinical symptoms as it does in goats. The larvae are passed in deer feces and are ingested by a variety of snails and slugs where they develop into infective larvae over a 3-4 week period. The snails or slugs are consumed by grazing goats. Inside the goat, the larvae penetrate the intestine and migrate to the spinal cord through the abdominal cavity over a 10 day period. The larva gets lost in migrating from the spinal cord to the brain because the goat anatomy is different from the deer. They end up destroying brain tissue causing differing degrees of paralysis. Symptoms of the brain worm include paralysis of one or more limbs, excessive tail twitching, circling, abnormal head position, blindness, inability to get up, toe dragging, being in a dogsitting position or difficulty or exaggerated movement of limbs when walking. The disease usually occurs in the fall and winter. There is no treatment for the brain worm that is very effective. Sometimes it is treated with high doses of various dewormers (fenbendazole and ivomec) and steriods, but treatment is often not effective. Since the parasite is carried by deer and uses a snails or slugs as the infective intermediate host, prevention consists of discouraging deer from using the pasture and making the environment unfavorable for snails and slugs. As goats clear the cover from an area, deer will visit that area less frequently. Guard dogs may chase deer away from pastures. A number of snails may serve as intermediate host and some may be so small (1/4") as to be overlooked. Snails prefer water, and so swampy areas are good habitat for snails. Therefore, fencing goats out of areas that often have water can help on prevention. Slugs and some snails prefer organic matter, leaf piles and compost. These areas may be cleaned up if the area is not extensive. Guinea hens and Muscovy ducks are reputed to be effective at controlling snails and slugs and may aid in prevention of the deerworm. Some producers deworm goats every 30 days from 30 days after the grazing season until a hard freeze to prevent the deerworm. Ivomec and fenbendazole (Safeguard, Panacur) are the most common dewormers used for this purpose. This will likely create dewormer resistance, but for many people, these dewormers do not work for roundworms. One producer used a low dose of Rumatel fed every day in a minimal amount of corn and appeared to be effective. Liver flukes may be caused by the common liver fluke and less commonly by the large American liver fluke (also called the deer fluke). The flukes invade the liver and cause internal bleeding. A goat with high numbers of flukes will have an acute infection, where the animal stops eating, has pale mucous membranes, gradually does not get up and often dies within days. With fewer numbers of flukes, the symptoms may be milder and is called a chronic infection. The animal will have a poor appetite, lose weight for longer

than a month, poor body condition, rough hair coat, rapid heartbeat, pale mucous membranes and sometimes edema, especially bottle jaw. Liver flukes can infect wildlife, cattle sheep and goats and even man. The fluke lays eggs in the bile duct of the animal it infects and the eggs end up in the feces. The infective larva develop inside the egg over a 2-3 week period which then infect snails. These are the common pond snails which are in or around water and may range form 1/4" to nearly 3" in length. The larvae further develops in the snail over 5-7 days and then becomes a true infective larvae which leaves the snail and attaches to grass where the goats may consume it. Once consumed, the fluke further develops and penetrates the intestine on its way through the abdominal cavity to the liver. Once in the liver, it starts consuming the liver. Prevention includes fencing off ponds or marshy areas in the pasture. Muscovy ducks and guinea hens may be used to control snails. The snails are mainly active from January/February through May/June depending on environmental conditions. Thee snails burrow into the mud and become dormant through the hot summer months and the rest of the year. Because of this pasture contamination peaks late summer, early fall, withpeak incidence of clinical disease in late fall, early winter. Control of the liver fluke is dependent on the stage of the larvae, which depends on the time of the year. Chlorsulon and valbazen is effective late in the year when flukes are mature. Chlorsulon is the only product that is effective against immature flukes, in early stages of infection as well as mature flukes. Consult local veterinary expertise for the time of the year to treat for flukes. Lungworm infections results in respiratory distress such as painful breathing, chronic coughing, unthriftiness and death. There are several kinds of lungworms that live in the lungs of animals. Infection usually happens during the cooler months of the year. One kind of lung worm has a direct life cycle, the larvae are coughed up, go out in the feces, develop to infective worms in one to two weeks. The infective stage is killed by hard freezes or hot dry summer. These larvae can live a long time in a cool damp environment. These larva develop into adults a month after being consumed. Several other kinds of lung worms have an indirect life cycle, that is they spend part of their lives developing in many species snails and slugs. Fortunately, these worms are easily controlled with the drug Fenbendazole (Panacur or Safeguard). Other dewormers such as levamisole and Ivomec are effective on some species of lung worms, but ineffective on other species. www.scsrpc.org www.luresext.edu www.sheepandgoat.com

Parasite Control for Goats Managing the Barberpole Worm by The Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Part 2 of Series Part 1 Parasite Control for Goats: Meet the Enemy Part 3 Integrated Parasite Management With FAMACHA Part 4 Dewormers and Dewormer Resistance Part 5 Alternative dewormers -Do they work? Part 6 Doing Your Own Research and Fecal Egg Counts The previous article was an introduction to the major worms affecting goats and sheep. This article develops our understanding of the biology of the worm, how sheep and goats become infected and using that knowledge to develop management practices to help control the worm. While this article is targeted to the Barberpole worm (Haemonchus contortus), the most economically important worm of sheep and goats, most principles apply to the other major roundworm of goats and sheep, the Bankrupt worm or Black scour worm (Trichostrongylus colubriformis). We need to remember that the parasite game is a game of numbers; how many worms does your goat have. A few worms are acceptable, maybe even good, because they keep the immune system active against roundworms, but too many worms will cause lost production, sickness and even death. So, we want to reduce numbers at whatever stages of the life cycle we can, realizing that something out of control at another stage may overwhelm the good that we have done at another stage. We have to look at our whole parasite program. The next article will be devoted to developing a parasite control program to include FAMACHA, a system of scoring the color of the eye mucous membranes (inner surface of lower eyelid). After that, there will be an article on dewormer resistance and selection of dewormers. The last article will cover alternative dewormers.

Goats and sheep get infected with worms by picking up infective larva on pasture that have developed from eggs in the fecal pellets. Eggs are laid by worms in the true stomach or upper small intestine and flow with the digesta until it becomes a pellet; undigested residues with the eggs trapped in the residues. Basically, kids and lambs are not infected with roundworms when they are born as may happen with dogs and other species, rather, kids and lambs pick up their first worms from larvae on the pasture. Since they graze little in early life, it may take several weeks for them to pick up their first worms. The first stage in the life cycle of the Barberpole worm is the hatching of the egg in the fecal pellets. The number of eggs available to hatch per acre is important in that if there are few eggs, even with a 100% hatch rate, there will be few infective larvae. Conversely, with many eggs per acre, even with a poor hatch and development success rate, there will be many infective larvae and parasites will be more of a problem. The number of eggs per acre is affected by two factors, stocking rate and how many eggs the worms in each goat is producing (how many worms the goat has). High stocking rates such as 10-12 animals per acre will produce many more eggs per acre than two animals per acre. It is thought that if you have a stocking rate less than two animals per acre, stocking rate is not a major contributor to pasture contamination. The other factor is the number of worms (and eggs produced by them) produced per animal. For example, if we have slightly wormy animals with 400 eggs per gram in their feces, pasture contamination will slowly build. However, if our parasite problem is bad and a few animals die due to worms, the average fecal egg count of the herd may be 410,000 eggs per gram, which very rapidly leads to a high level of pasture contamination. Even when we do deworm, the animal, there are so many infective larvae on pasture that animals will need to be dewormed again in 3 - 4 weeks because they are picking up so many larvae from the pasture. We need to think about pasture contamination as part of our parasite management. Older parasite management strategies realized the importance of pasture contamination and prevented it by frequent deworming during critical times (usually lactation and summer grazing) which helped to reduce pasture contamination, but such a strategy is now recognized to increase dewormer resistance of the worms due to the frequent deworming. This management strategy is not an acceptable practice because of the increase in dewormer resistance (means that the dewormer that we are using will not kill worms after a short period of time). Also, we can reduce pasture contamination by selecting animals with low fecal egg counts and monitor the level of worm infection of animals with FAMACHA or fecal egg count and deworming animals when needed to avoid heavy pasture contamination. It has been shown that 15% of the wormiest animals contribute 50% of the total eggs on a pasture and 30% of the wormiest animals contribute 75% of the eggs. Culling of these animals will result in a marked reduction in pasture contamination and consequent parasite problems for the whole herd. Table Effect of pasture contamination (eggs per acre) and hatch rate on infective larvae

400 eggs 95% hatch = 380 larvae 6,000 eggs 25% hatch 1,500 larvae Managing pasture for goats and sheep is different from cattle in that instead of maximizing forage or animal production being the management objective, the management objective becomes controlling parasites. Pasture rotation can reduce pasture contamination, especially if there is a long enough rest period for infective larva to die. Grazing sheep or goat pastures with cattle or horses will reduce infective larva since the infective larva die after being consumed by cattle or horses. Levels of infective larva can also be reduced by making hay or tillage. Incorporation of one or more of these management practices into your pasture rotation program, it will help you reduce the level of infective larvae on pastures. Two conditions are required for worm eggs to hatch and develop to larvae, they are warmth, and moisture (rain, dew, humidity). The Barberpole worm likes it warm with 86oF is the ideal temperature for hatching eggs and developing infective larvae which will result in infective larvae being available in as little as 6 days. Eggs will still hatch up to 100oF, but with a reduction in hatching rate. Barberpole worm eggs do not hatch and develop when temperature is less than 50oF however, the Bankrupt worm will hatch at lower temperatures, which is the reason that they are greater problems in cooler times of the year. This is the reason why there are fewer Barberpole worm problems in winter. In the southeastern US, the winters are not cold enough to kill worm larvae, but the cold weather does slows down hatching and rate of development and reduces pasture contamination and consequent worm problems. However, remember that your animals still have worms from the larvae that they picked up prior to cool weather and infective larvae are still out there on the forage for a period of time. The major environmental effects on worms are caused by temperature and moisture (rain, humidity or irrigation). Moisture is essential for the eggs to develop to infective larva. This is why worms are little problem in drier climates and a big problem in wetter climates. Moisture is required for the egg to hatch and develop. The fecal pellet has sufficient moisture in it for the eggs to hatch and develop. In fact, we hatch worm eggs in the laboratory by suspending a cheesecloth bag of fecal pellets in a quart jar with a little water in the bottom (humidity 100%) at room temperature (75oF) for a week or so and the larva are fully developed and ready to be used to infect animals. Underneath some sod pastures such as Bermudagrass, the microenvironment is humid and not as hot as the outside temperature, resulting in ideal egg hatching conditions during the summer. In drier areas or when the weather is dry, the pellet crusts over and as the pellet dries from the outside in, the developing larvae move towards the center of the pellet where it is more moist. Dry conditions will reduce the success rate of hatching and especially hot, dry conditions. This is the reason why worms are less of a problem during drought (except when animals graze down close to the ground). If the pellet is in open pasture

and exposed to the sun, the pellet will be heated over 100oF and the longer such conditions prevail, more eggs and larvae will die in the pellet. The egg, under conditions of warmth and humidity hatches in the pellet to a first stage larva abbreviated L1. This larva cannot infect your goat, but must grow and develop through several larval stages to become an infective larva. The first stage larva wiggles his way through the fecal pellet, eating bacteria and growing. Then it molts, this is somewhat like a snake shedding his skin and becomes a second stage larva (L2). The second stage larva does much the same thing as the first stage larva, wiggling his way through the fecal pellet, eating bacteria and growing. The second stage larva then molts to become a third stage larva (L3) which is the infective stage larva that your goat will pick up from pasture. This will happen as quick as 6 days in temperate regions and 4 days in tropical regions. However, this molt is an incomplete molt. The skin only partially comes off and slips down the worm's body. This is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that the larvae has a second skin which makes him more resistant to drying out (L1 and L2 are susceptible to being killed by drying out). The bad news is that the partially shed skin covers his mouth which prevents him from eating. This means that he must live off his body stores until he gets into your goat. If his body stores run out before he gets into your goat, he dies. These larva are very small, like the thickness of spider web and about as long as the period at the end of this sentence, so you cannot see them with your eye. If you have a good magnifying glass and know what you are looking at, you can see the larvae (look like eyelashes). Larva may be killed in the feces by nematophagus (worm trapping) fungi, literally fungus which parasitize nematode larvae (worms are also called gastrointestinal nematodes). The fungus forms loops that look like an Easter basket handle and as the larva wiggles his way through the fecal pellet, he goes through the loop which traps him. The fungus then kills the larva and uses its body to reproduce more fungus. These fungi are normally present in feces at a low levels and do reduce larval numbers to a small degree. However, research on feeding high levels of fungal spores to animals greatly reduced the number of infective larva and thus is effective in reducing pasture infectivity. But, the fungal spores must be fed every day to be effective. Hopefully a commercial product will be developed from this technology. In addition, the forage, sericea lespedeza appears to reduce hatch rate and development of larvae in the feces, also aiding in reducing pasture contamination. A similar reduction in hatch rate and larval development has been observed for a number of plants, many of which contain tannin. However, there are many types of tannins and not all are effective against worm eggs and larva. Since the larva is cold-blooded, his metabolism runs slow in cold weather, his body stores will last a long time, and he may survive as long as 180 days. However, when it is hot (summer), his metabolism goes much faster, burning up the body stores and may survive only 30-40 days. There are several studies on grazing systems to avoid parasites using rotation grazing. A study on native species range in the US (Oklahoma) utilized 14 pastures and moved animals every 5 days with a 65 day rest period during the summer. Animals were fenced in with temporary electric fencing

which was moved every 5 days. Fecal egg counts of goats remained low throughout the summer and pasture contamination was low. Animals were moved before any L3 infective larvae had developed and the infective larvae that did develop later, died during the 65 day rest period since the weather was hot. Forage quality remained good since this was a native tallgrass pasture. If improved grasses are used in this grazing system, the forage quality would be too low at the end of 65 days to be nutritious to animals. Therefore, some modifications would be suitable for utilizing such improved grasses. Grazing cattle or horses 3 to 4 weeks after the goats would help in that they would pick up goat and sheep worms which would not infect them as they have different worm parasites. Goats would follow the cattle or horses in 3 to 4 weeks. Another option is to make hay on the pasture which may eliminate most of the larvae. When the larvae are baled up with the hay, they will eventually die when they run out of body stores. And, since hay bales often generate heat, the larva can die from the high temperature. A grazing system in the tropics used a 3.5 day grazing period (moved animals off pasture before there were any L-3 infective larva) and 31.5 days of rest (larva ran out of body stores in hot tropical weather). This was a 10 pasture grazing system on alfalfa. Using these types of grazing systems, it would be possible to raise goats and/or sheep with little use of dewormers. Tillage is another way to reduce larval contamination on pastures. If larvae are buried under an inch of soil, most will die. If annual pastures such as winter wheat, or ryegrass or summer sudangrass are grazed, tillage between grazing seasons will kill many infective larvae from the previous grazing season, creating a pasture with reduced infectivity.. Several chemicals have been investigated for use in killing larva on pastures and to date, no product has proven effective. Pasture rotation, at appropriate intervals, may reduce the number of infective larvae your goat consumes. However, worms are not effectively reduced by a 4 pasture rotation system when animals graze one week in each pasture. This is because the 3 week rest period is just enough time for infective larvae to build up to maximum levels and not long enough for larvae to die. .Trees can increase parasite problems because they provide shade, humidity and cause animals to congregate (more feces, grass grazed close to ground, more mouths to pick up infective larvae). Rotation grazing with a long rest period reduces problems caused by trees. Barns and watering areas can concentrate animals and also have a similar effect to trees. Management factors that reduce worm problems 1. Pasture rotation, especially with a long rest period 2. Grazing pastures with cattle or horses 3. Harvesting hay 4. Tilling soil on annual pastures 5. Grazing browse Once the larva reaches the infective stage, he has a problem: He can't very well get into a goat to infect him it is still in the fecal pellet since goats don't generally go around eating fecal pellets. The fecal pellet has a hard crust on it by a week after the goat

produced it and the larva can't penetrate this crust to escape. The pellet needs to be broken up so the larva can escape. Generally, rain soaks the pellet, softening the crust making it easier to be broken up. Two inches of rain in a month's time is sufficient to enable larvae to escape. The goat's feet may also break open the pellet as well as fowl or wildlife. If the pellets are broken up shortly after the goat dropped it, the pellet will dry out and the L1 and L2 larvae and eggs in the pellet will quickly die. However, if the pellet is broken open when there are infective L3 larvae present, they will be released to infect the goat. After being released from the pellet, the infective larvae travel on a film of water (from dew or rain). The larvae cannot swim, but wiggles and drifts wherever the film of water takes them. Larvae may be carried up a pasture plant or under plant residues such as a fallen leaf. They only go as far as the film of water takes them, usually only two to three inches up the plant. The infective larva rests on the plant where the moisture has taken it so it can then be consumed with the plant by grazing animals. The infective larvae can live on the plant until they run out of body stores. If the larvae in the pellet is not released, they can survive in the pellet until they run out of body stores. So, that can be a month or more before rain comes along to release them. A heavy rain can cause the release of a month's accumulation of infective larvae, resulting in a sudden, dramatic increase in infective larva on the pasture. Very hot temperatures especially when it is dry can result in a high mortality rate for the infective larvae, reducing pasture infectivity. Generally, larvae accumulate over the summer grazing season, making for greater parasite problems in mid- and late- summer if there is adequate moisture. This is one reason why kids born early in the kidding season often do better and wean heavier than kids born late in the kidding season. Since the larva do not go very high up the plant, when goats consume browse, they pick up very few larvae since they are eating higher than the larvae and therefore, usually have very few worm problems. Conversely, when pastures are grazed short, goats and sheep consume many larvae, resulting in major worm problems. On some pastures such as bermudagrass, goats will patch graze i.e. have favorite spots where the pasture is grazed down to less than 3 inches high. This will result in a heavy worm infection even though most of the pasture is greater than 3 inches high. The solution to patch grazing is rotation grazing. Once the infective larva has been consumed by a sheep or goat, it molts to a fourth stage larva. This larva may suck blood and further develop into an adult worm complete with sex organs and mate, producing eggs in about three weeks, or it may become arrested in development (arrested fourth stage larva), kind of like hibernating in the stomach. One caution with fecal egg counts, if the animal suddenly picks up a large number of infective larva, they are sucking blood but there will not be any eggs showing up in the feces until 3 or 4 weeks later. So negative or low fecal egg counts do not always mean no or few worms. Since it takes at least a week for the egg to hatch and develop to infective larvae and then at least three weeks to develop to maturity and lay eggs after ingestion by the goat or sheep the generation interval is 4-5 weeks for the Barberpole worm. This is the reason why deworming every 4-6 weeks is so effective at developing dewormer resistance, because each generation of worms is selected for dewormer resistance. Also, the 4-5 week generation interval is why the Barberpole

worm can build its population numbers so explosively under good environmental conditions (warm temperatures and frequent rain or irrigation). The arrested form of the larvae is a survival mechanism, enabling the Barberpole worm to survive the winter in cold environments. The eggs produced by worms during the winter do not hatch due to cold temperatures. Many of the worms in the animal that are laying eggs will die of old age over the winter. The average life span of an adult worm is 4-6 months, but some may live longer. A strong immune response by the animal can cause early death of the worms. Worm and fecal egg counts will often be low in the springtime. The arrested larvae are in reserve, safely nestled down in the glands in the stomach where they do not trigger an immune response. The arrested larva requires a higher dose of the benzamidole class of dewormers (Panacur, Safeguard, Synanthic, Valbazen) to kill them. Since these dewormers were less effective on arrested worms, it was a common recommendation in years past to deworm again two weeks after the first deworming when the arrested larvae developed and took the place of the worms that were killed. Sequential dewormings are not needed with other classes of dewormers such as ivermectin (Ivomec), moxydectin (Cydectin) or levamisole (Tramisol, Levasole or Prohibit) are used because they are effective at killing arrested larva of the Barberpole worm. The main trigger for the arrested form to develop into an adult is kidding or lambing. The exact mechanism for triggering the development of the arrested worms is not known, although, longer day length, kidding, lactation and green grass are all supported by scientific evidence. This is the reason for the recommendation to deworm around kidding/lambing time. By deworming at this time, you may eliminate most of the arrested larva as well as active worms (depending on the dewormer resistance status of the worms; worms and larvae that are resistant to the dewormer used will survive) and start the kidding season with very low level of pasture contamination. In addition, the lactating animal is very susceptible to worm infection (from grazing) during this time because lactation depresses the doe's or ewe's immune system. The immune system is the first line of defense against worms. The immune system has genetic and environmental components that determine its effectiveness at suppressing worms. Since fecal egg counts are moderately heritable, one can make progress over several generations by selecting animals for low fecal egg counts. Genetics of the herd can also be improved by simply culling the worst animals each year as identified by FAMACHA eye scores. Since the buck contributes more than 50% of the genetic material to the herd, his genotype is very important. Not only should his fecal egg counts or FAMACHA scores be evaluated, but the fecal egg count or FAMACHA scores of his sons and daughters. Culling animals with high fecal egg counts or high FAMACHA scores can not only improve the herd genetics for resistance to worms, but also substantially reduce the number of infective larvae on the pasture, thus reducing worm problems for the whole herd. The major environmental components of the immune system are nutrition and stress. It is well known that stress depresses the immune system. This includes stress such as

other sickness (coccidiosis, pneumonia, pinkeye etc.), shipping, putting with a new group of animals (need to establish pecking order) etc. Nutrition includes adequate protein and energy as well as minerals and vitamins. When animals suffer from poor nutrition, nutrients going to the immune system are diverted to other body functions so the animal may survive, but this makes the animal more susceptible to disease and parasites. There are many examples in the literature of protein and/or mineral supplementation decreasing fecal egg counts, likely by boosting the immune response. The animal's immune system is the first line of defense against worms. Some animals are more resistant than others to worms due to genetics. However, the immune system must be fueled by good nutrition. The immune system can be depressed by disease or stress, making the animal more vulnerable to worms. To summarize, here are a list of environmental conditions that increase worm problems and when these conditions occur, you need to be concerned about worms so that you do not lose animals. 1. Temperatures warmer than 50oF. 2. More than two inches of rain in a month. 3. Long residence time on the same pasture 4. Grazing close to the ground 5. Stressed animals either by undernutrition, disease, shipping etc. 6. Stocking rate greater than five animals per acre. To summarize, here is a list of things the manager can do to help his goats fight worms 1. Pasture rotation, especially with long rest periods 2. Grazing browse or eating high off the ground 3. Using good nutrition 4. Grazing cattle or horses with sheep or goats 5. Making hay 6. Tillage of pastures 7. Monitoring parasite infection using FAMACHA or fecal egg counts 8. Culling animals with the most parasite problems 9. Deworming around kidding time The next article will show how to incorporate these management practices into a parasite control program. A good reference on management to control parasites is a publication by ATTRA, Managing Internal Parasites in Sheep and Goats. It can be obtained by calling 1-800346-9140 or can be printed from ATTRA's web site.

Parasite Control for Goats Integrated Parasite Management With FAMACHA by The Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Part 3 of Series Part 1 Parasite Control for Goats: Meet the Enemy Part 2 Managing the Barberpole Worm Part 4 Dewormers and Dewormer Resistance Part 5 Alternative dewormers -Do they work? Part 6 Doing Your Own Research and Fecal Egg Counts The objective of this article is to help you develop an integrated parasite management program for your farm that is sustainable i.e. enables you to stay in the goat or sheep business for the long term despite some dewormer resistance. In warm, humid areas of the US, producers are being forced out of the goat business due to management practices leading to severe dewormer resistance. When you have a climate that is good for worms and no available dewormer kills the worms, the goats/sheep will die and continue to die until the producer goes out of business. Most people think a parasite control program consists of (1) how frequently do we deworm, (2) which dewormer to use and (3) how much to use. This strategy has led us to high levels of dewormer resistance in the worm population, resulting in frustration, and animal deaths. We know that it is possible to have a parasite management plan that requires reduced or even no use of dewormer drugs, which is important to anyone who wants to stay in the goat or sheep business, but especially so to those raising an organic, chemical free or natural product. It is also important if a high level of dewormer resistance exists on a particular farm. An integrated parasite management program consists of several components. The first is to identify the parasite that are causing the problem, which in the Southeastern US will be the Barberpole worm (Haemonchus contortus). In other drier and cooler areas, the Barberpole worm may be a minor or less severe problem. In cooler climates and times of the year, the Bankrupt worm (Trichostrongylus colubriformis) and the Brown stomach worm (Teledorsagia circumcincta) will be more important. In some geographic areas the thread-necked intestinal worm (Nematodirus species) can be a problem. Clinical symptoms of the Barberpole worm is anemia since he sucks blood which can be monitored by FAMACHA . Clinical symptoms of the other worm species are usually diarrhea and fecal egg counts are the only available tool to monitor these other species. The second step of integrated parasite control is to understand the biology of the parasite, which was presented in the second article of this series. Factors such as

temperature and moisture are important since they are required for the eggs to develop to infective larvae and therefore determine how many infective larvae are available for your animal to pick up. The third step is to develop a set of management practices to suppress the kind(s) of parasite that are applicable to your production system. This was also covered in the second article and included such practices as rotation grazing, making hay, tillage, not grazing close to the ground, managing for lower stocking rates, grazing browse and selecting for resistant animals. Write down what practices you plan to use and then have the discipline to follow your plan. Making hay may be a viable management practice to reduce the level of infective larvae during the spring when grass growth is often excessive. If making hay is not possible, it may be possible to graze cattle or horses on the pastures following goats. If you don't own cattle you may be able to lease some, borrow a few from a neighbor or graze stocker calves. Some sort of rotation grazing system to help out not only with parasite management but also forage management. Electric fencing can be used to readily subdivide pastures, but requires management if it is to be successful. If you use summer annual pastures (such as sudan/sorghum, sudan or millet) these pastures start out without infective larvae (assuming that they were clean tilled) and keep the animal grazing high off the ground, they will pick up few infective larvae. You may be able to lease or borrow some pasture that is brushy or weedy and clean it up while grazing pasture that is uninfected with larvae and keep your animals grazing high above the level of infective larvae. You may be able to incorporate sericea lespedeza into your pasture program since it has been shown to suppress worms. You may have a neighbor that wants to control sericea lespedeza, you may be able to use your sheep or goats to graze it for control at very little cost. If worms have caused you problems in the past, you need to do something different if you plan to survive in the sheep/goat business. This may mean doing some things that you have never done before or you may need to do things differently than you have done them before. Solutions requires creativity and thinking outside of the box. You may have to learn some new skills or team up with another person for help on the problem. You may have to learn to use electric fence for rotation grazing or grazing an area that goats have not grazed on before. You may need to keep fewer goats if you run out of forage resulting in the animals grazing closer to the ground. The fourth part of integrated parasite management is monitoring the degree of infection and applying control (deworming) only when the level of infection of an animal depresses production. This may be done by monitoring fecal egg counts or by evaluating animals at regular intervals with the FAMACHA chart. The latter is more convenient, but is only applicable when the Barberpole worm is the target parasite. Fecal egg counts (FEC) can be used to monitor the level of worm infection in a herd. If the herd is small, all animals may be sampled whereas in a larger herd, a portion (1020%) of animals are sampled. The same animals should be sampled at each time. When temperate species worms predominate (cooler climates and at cooler times of the year) fecal egg counts in conjunction with body condition and fecal consistency

(temperate worms cause diarrhea in varying degrees) will need to be used. Fecal egg counts have a disadvantage in being more expensive and time consuming than FAMACHA. Information about the FEC of a few individuals is extrapolated to the whole herd and if they are high, the whole herd must be dewormed, a procedure that increases dewormer resistance as compared to selective deworming individuals with the FAMACHA system. One should deworm animals only when they need to be dewormed, not because it is that time of the year or because you are working the animals anyway or just to be sure there are no worm problems. The exception to this would be strategic deworming around kidding time to get arrested worms and slow down the rate of infection for lactating animals since they are more susceptible to worms. In sheep breeds that have significant resistance to worms, this may not be necessary. When temperate species of worms predominate (cooler climates and at cooler times of the year) fecal egg counts are very important since the FAMACHA procedure will not diagnose those worms. Reducing the use of dewormers will reduce the rate of development of dewormer resistance in the worm population on your farm. The next article will cover the selection and proper use of dewormers. Each time a goat or sheep is dewormed, it should be recorded. Worms, like wealth are not equally distributed among all individuals. A small portion of your animals (20-30%) will carry a major portion of the worms (70-80%), presumably because their immune system is genetically weak for resisting worms. These animals are producing most of the eggs and larvae for infecting the rest of the herd. If we identify and cull these animals, we will substantially reduce our worm problems. By recording when each animal is dewormed, those that need dewormed the most frequently are the ones carrying the most worms and should be culled. Fecal egg counts are moderately heritable in sheep and goats (heritability =.30). This level of heritability means that a good portion of the differences in worm levels within individuals in a herd or flock is due to genetic differences. We can make significant progress in selecting for resistance to worms over several generations. The Katahdin Hair Sheep International is working on a protocol to measure worm resistance in lambs and produce EPD's (expected progeny difference) for fecal egg counts. There is potential for a similar program to be used in the goat industry. The next step is evaluation of how your parasite control management program is working. If very many animals need dewormed in any year, you should determine why. Refer to information in article two of this series. Once the reasons are identified, modify your parasite control program accordingly. As your parasite management program gets better and your genetic base of the flock or herd becomes more resistant to worms, less deworming will be necessary. However, continue to be cautious, because weather conditions change within a year and from year to year, and can increase parasite challenge. The introduction of new animals can create an additional challenge. Management changes related to pasture management, stocking rate, plane of nutrition may increase worm problems, even resulting in the death of animal(s) if we become complacent.

Five steps of Integrated Parasite Control 1. Identify worm(s) causing animal production problems (morbidity, mortality and reduced production). In the Southeast US, it will be the Barberpole worm. 2. Learn as much as you can about the biology of the worm causing problems so that you can utilize management practices which suppress parasite reproduction and development.. Evaluate the impact of your standard management practices on worms and revise as necessary. 3. Plan what management practices applicable to your operation. Stick to your plan unless it is obviously not working. 4. Evaluate the worm status of animals. Use either fecal egg counts or the FAMACHA system. Deworm only animals those that need to be dewormed. 5. Re-evaluate your worm problems and determine which management needs to be changed to control worms. Revise your parasite control plan for next year. The use of fecal egg counts is a necessary tool of a parasite control program. It is the best and quickest way to determine if your dewormer is/isn't working. It is also the only way to really tell the level of infection of the Brown stomach worm or the Bankrupt worm since these worms do not cause anemia (they do cause diarrhea though) which is monitored through the FAMACHA system. You can learn to do your own fecal egg counts rather easily. There are instructions on how to do this on these web sites: www.SCSRPC.org and http://www2.luresext.edu/goats/training/herdhealthI.html (scroll to bottom). The easiest way to monitor the need for deworming is to use the FAMACHA chart if the Barberpole worm is the problem species. The FAMACHA chart was developed in South Africa in response to dewormer resistance that was causing major problems in sheep production systems. The name of the chart is an acronym from the name of a famous South African parasitologist Dr. Fafa Malan with chart added to get FAMACHA. Although originally developed for use in sheep and it was successfully validated for use in goats in the USA through research support from Southern SARE. The validation exercise did include sheep as well as goats and involved several of the institutions that are currently a part of SCSRPC. This parasite management tool consists of a color chart for comparison of eye mucous membrane color and rules for proper use of the chart. Figure 1 shows a picture of the FAMACHA chart (actual chart is in color).

figure 1 FAMACHA is an important tool in an integrated parasite management program. It identifies animals that have a high enough level of the Barberpole worm infection to reduce animal productivity. Only those individuals need to be dewormed. Since the Barberpole worm sucks blood, the of resultant degree of anemia. will cause lost production or even death of the animal. Anemia is reflected in the color of the mucous membranes i.e. a healthy reddish-pink color reflecting no anemia, whereas pale mucous membranes reflect a degree of anemia. By monitoring the degree of anemia,(using eye mucous membrane color as an indicator) we can identify animals that need to be dewormed to prevent a loss in animal production and to prevent death. Usually only a portion of the animals in a herd need dewormed (animals to right of arrow as shown in figure 2). The remainder of animals are not dewormed which reduces the development of dewormer resistance which will be discussed in the next article. This also reduces dewormer expense.

figure 2 Mucous membranes that are readily observed are located on the inside of the eyelid, the gums (difficult to gauge anemia in animals with pigmented gums) and inside the vulva (often checked by dairy goat people when animals are being milked on a milk stand). The FAMACHA system was developed based on the eye mucous membrane, which is on the inside of the lower eyelid where it touches the eyeball. It is convenient to see the membrane by holding the animal=s head, slightly pressing down on the top of the eyeball (causes third eyelid to stay out of way), and pulling down on the skin immediately below the eyeball. The lower eyelid will roll out and can be readily compared to the FAMACHA chart. By using a series of color chips to match mucous membrane color, we can determine the degree of anemia and consequently, whether an animal needs to be dewormed. Since the Bankrupt worm and Brown stomach worm

do not suck blood, FAMACHA will not bean effective indicator for controlling these species of worms. These worms are more prevalent during cooler times of the year and need to be monitored with fecal egg counts or monitoring animals for diarrhea. Your local veterinarian or animal extension specialist should be able to help you identify times of the year when these worm species are more prevalent. The FAMACHA chart was originally brought into the US by the Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control. The agreement was that the chart could only be sold to Extension Educators, agricultural teachers and producers who had completed handson training following the specified curriculum (Some exceptions made for veterinarians and Extension Specialists who already had the prerequisite training). Training sessions are posted to the website (www.scsrpc.org) as well as further information about the FAMACHA chart. Most states have qualified trainers which can be identified through your state sheep or goat extension specialist. Some trainers are listed on the SCSRPC web site. The FAMACHA chart is small enough to be fastened to the back of the hand for ready comparison when the lower eyelid is pulled down. The chart is calibrated for observing the eye of the animal in direct sunlight (the type of light may affect appearance of color, ask any woman about the effect of different kinds of light on makeup). Animals should be observed in direct sunlight and matched to the chart. Color memory is not as good as a person thinks (why do women take swatches of fabric to the store for matching?) Therefore, the chart should always be used for matching colors. If the animal's eye color is in between two chips, score as the lighter chip (higher number). When scoring eyes, one should remember that some environmental factors can affect eye color and make the eye appear redder and make the animal not appear anemic. Factors include hot and/or dusty conditions which can irritate the eyes, infectious eye diseases (pink eye) and fever. In addition, remember that there can be other causes of anemia besides the Barberpole worm and deworming will not fix those anemias. Other causes includes liver flukes (most likely a problem in the Gulf Coast and Northwestern States), sucking lice, nutritional deficiency, bacterial and viral infections. The frequency of checking eyes will vary with how suitable environmental conditions are for the Barberpole worm and age and class of the animal. Young animals need to be checked every two weeks because they are more susceptible to worms. In the spring, such as around kidding time, one may only check every 3-4 weeks, but when the weather warms up and you have rain (ideal conditions for the Barberpole worm are 85oF and two or more inches of rain in a month's time), you may need to check as frequently as weekly. Many producers will only need to check every two weeks except when it is warm and rainy when they need to go to weekly eye examination. With large herds of goats, a random sample may be checked (don=t forget that animals that are anemic are often at the end of the line because they move slower due to anemia) and if 80% are 1 and 2's and there are no 4's or 5's then the herd is assumed OK. If there are 4's and 5's or more than 10% of the herd is a 3, then the whole herd should be examined.

Sheep or goats that score a 4 or 5 (pale) need to be dewormed and the rest turned back to the pasture. However, when over 10% of the flock are dewormed, the 3's should also be dewormed because pasture contamination is building and the 3's will need dewormed shortly. The flock should be rotated to a new pasture since present pasture has become highly contaminated with infectious larvae. In addition, pregnant animals, lactating animals and animals under a year of age should be dewormed when they are 3's since their immune system is not fully functional. Animals with bottle jaw (swelling under the chin caused by edema) should be dewormed and animals that lag behind the rest of the herd or those that look wormy should be dewormed. It is important to know that the dewormer that you are using works. The best way to determine this is to take a fecal sample before deworming on several animals then deworm those animals. Take another fecal sample 7-14 days later on the same animals for a fecal egg count. There should be less than 15% of the eggs in the second fecal count as compared to the first count. If there are more than 15% of the eggs in the second fecal egg count as compared to the first one, the dewormer is not effective in your herd or flock. The dewormer should be changed and be sure to verify that the new dewormer is working for your sheep/goats. The next article in this series will cover selection of a dewormer. To get the most out of this program, records should be kept on which animals are dewormed. Records may be as simple as recording eartag numbers or names and dates animals were dewormed. It is beneficial to be able to identify the animals that require the most deworming. These animals are candidates for culling. These animals need culled because they are producing most of the eggs (and infective larvae) for infecting other animals in the herd. Remember, 20-30% of the animals produce 70-80% of the eggs on a pasture. In addition, culling of these animals will improve the genetic base of the whole herd for resistance to the Barberpole worm. Several methods of marking animals are available to identify animals that were dewormed if there is not an individual animal identification. The ear may be notched each time the animal is dewormed or a wire tie may be placed around the cannon bone of the front leg with the tail of the tie cut off much like a bangel. The animals that accumulate the most wire tie bangels in a season or ear notches are candidates for culling. Another record keeping tool that can be used is shown in Figure 3. It is a FAMACHA block histogram. It shows the proportion of animals in each FAMACHA score category at each time animals are checked. By keeping this record, a pattern will develop over time of what is happening in the herd as far as infection levels. That can provide background information for development/modification of the parasite control program. By watching changes in the relative proportion of FAMACHA categories of the herd, one can tell when animals need ti be checked more or less frequently.

figure 3 Since the determination of whether an animal needs to be dewormed is by comparison to the color chart, you need to protect the chart from fading. The chief cause of the color chart fading is sunlight, just as sunlight causes stop signs to fade. When the FAMACHA card is not being used, it should be stored in a dark area such as in a book or dark colored folder to exclude sunlight. Probably the worst place to put the card is on the dash of the pickup with the sun beating down on it. Despite your best efforts, the colors will eventually fade. It is recommended that the card be replaced every year so that you are sure that the colors are true. Replacement cards can be obtained from whoever you obtained the first card or from www.scsrpc.org web site. Troubleshooting Barberpole worm problems Routinely monitor sheep/goats for parasite infection level using FAMACHA chart. Do only a few individuals (less than 20% of the herd) need dewormed? Keep up with regular monitoring. Do some individuals require the most deworming? Solution, cull individuals requiring the most deworming because they have more worms and are causing most of the pasture contamination for other animals. Do more than 20% of the herd need dewormed? Has it been longer than 8 weeks since those animals were dewormed? Keep up with regular monitoring and realize that level of pasture contamination may be building. Less than 8 weeks since those animals were previously deworming?

Possible causes: a. Sheep or goats are picking up a many infective larva from the pasture which may be heavily infected with larva such as by having many animals on it a long time or having wormy animals on it during times of good rainfall. The solution is to move animals to another less infected pasture (deworm only animals that need to be when moving pastures). The old pasture will need to be without goats or sheep at least 6 weeks to reduce contamination. It can be cut for hay or grazed with a cattle or horses to reduce contamination. b. Goats/sheep may be grazing close to the ground picking up many larva, causing worm problems. This can happen if the pasture is grazed low, or animals may graze favorite patches such as in bermuda grass or specific areas where their favorite plants are. The solution is to move animals to another pasture or reduce animal numbers or supplement animals so that they don't need to graze close to the ground. Patch grazing can be reduced by high stocking density in a rapid rotation grazing system. c. Animal's immune system may be suppressed by lactation, shipping, poor nutrition (protein, energy and minerals) or other stress. Solution is to make sure animals have good nutrition (protein, energy, vitamins and minerals) and reduce stress. Since lactation suppresses the immune system, deworming around lambing/kidding time will help reduce worm problems. It is important to plan to use pastures which have a low level of infective larvae (such as pastures that have been rested a long period of time) for animals around kidding/lambing time and lactation.

Parasite Control for Goats Dewormers and Dewormer Resistance by The Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Part 4 of Series (Temporarily Unavailable) Part 1 Parasite Control for Goats: Meet the Enemy Part 2 Managing the Barberpole Worm Part 3 Integrated Parasite Management With FAMACHA Part 5 Alternative dewormers -Do they work? Part 6 Doing Your Own Research and Fecal Egg Counts

Parasite Control for Goats Alternative dewormers -Do they work? by The Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Part 5 of Series Part 1 Parasite Control for Goats: Meet the Enemy Part 2 Managing the Barberpole Worm Part 3 Integrated Parasite Management With FAMACHA Part 4 Dewormers and Dewormer Resistance Part 6 Doing Your Own Research and Fecal Egg Counts There has been a great increase in interest in alternative dewormers ie. substances used to control worms which are not commercially available drugs or pharmaceuticals. This has been especially true with the continued development of dewormer resistance by worms. Sometimes these are called non-chemical dewormers, but also would include organic dewormers, herbal dewormers, and natural dewormers. Specific substances to be discussed include tannins (including sericea lespedeza), copper oxide wire particles, diatomaceous earth and herbal preparations. There is some significant scientific data on the several alternative dewormers, but data on herbal dewormers is scarce. The SCSRPC has coordinated research on sericea lespedeza and copper oxide wire particles and accumulated data from several trials. One characteristic of many alternative dewormers is not only the lack of data, but also the lack of consistent data when data is available. For example, in the study of copper oxide wire particles in sheep, the copper oxide wire particles were fairly effective in sheep in all locations, but data in goats were not as consistent, in fact, in three trials at one location, they had little effect, but were effective in a number of studies conducted in three other locations. Alternative dewormers need to be studied at several locations, with sheep and goats and with different classes of animals ie. kids vs. yearlings vs. mature does. There is not much money available to fund this kind of research which is why we have so little data and understanding of these alternative dewormers. There is a USDA funded study on herbal dewormers for sheep and goats at Lincoln Univesity in Missouri that is progressing. In addition, when one gets into the many different combinations of herbal dewormers that can be used, the research becomes too large to be accomplished. Hearsay data is not very good and in some cases, very few animals were tested. In the next article in this series, we will discuss how to do your own research to see if the dewormer (alternative or conventional) that you use is working in your animals. Tannins Condensed tannins have been shown to suppress fecal egg counts and reduce worms in the digestive tract. Tannins are a large group of polyphenolic compounds that differ in many physical characteristics. Some tannins such as in sericea lespedeza and other

plants have been shown effective in suppressing worms whereas tannins in oaks and other plants do not appear to possess those characteristics. There is an excellent summary of research on sericea lespedeza for worm control by ATTRA (Tools for Managing Internal Parasites in Small Ruminants: Sericea lespedeza, http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/sericea_lespedeza.html). Some work has been done overseas with sainfoin, birdsfoot trefoil, dock and chicory (tannin-containing plants that grow in the US) showing that they too effectively suppress worms. There are several studies that have been done overseas with tannin containing plants, most of which do not grow here or have a very limited area of adaptation (Sulla, big trefoil). One study showed that the tannins in some types of browse are effective in suppressing worms.

Goat Eating Sericea Lespedeza Even as much research as has been done on sericea lespedeza here in the US, there is so much that we dont understand other than it works both as fresh forage and as a dried product (hay, meal, pellets). Feeding in the short term reduces fecal egg counts by half, and longer term feeding appears to kill a portion of the worms in the animal. In addition, fecal egg hatch may be reduced and larval development and motility affected. When goats are grazed on a solid stand of lespedeza or a mixed lespedeza stand (goats do have a strong preference for sericea lespedeza in the middle of summer) and under both scenarios, worm control was such that dewormers were not needed, even in kids. When animals were grazed on alternate weeks on sericea lespedeza, there was a significant reduction in fecal egg counts, but not as much as for animals grazing sericea lespedeza alone. We do not know if a pasture containing 20% sericea lespedeza will help suppress worms. Can we supplement with sericea lespedeza hay to animals for 10 days each month (or some such scenario) and get a useful reduction in fecal egg counts? There appear to be some differences in potency of some improved varieties of sericea lespedeza. To summarize, we know that sericea lespedeza works (we assume it is tannins in the plant), but we need to figure out more ways to apply that knowledge to our goat production systems.

Sericea lespedeza is a legume plant that grows throughout most of the Southeastern and Eastern US. It is adapted to warm climates and is quite drought tolerant, tolerant of low fertility and low soil pH (as low as 4.5). It was formerly planted for erosion control and used for revegetating strip mines. It is spread by wildlife and is a long-lived perennial plant. It is too well adapted in Kansas where it has been declared a noxious weed. Sericea lespedeza will not become invasive as long as it is grazed by sheep or goats (it does not produce seed when moderately defoliated) . Cattle often only eat the plant when it is young, because as it matures, the stems become coarse and tough, the tannin content increases and cattle avoid it because the tannins are bitter (cattlemen hate the plant because of this). However, goats and to a lesser extent sheep can tolerate the bitterness of the tannins and consume it well. Improved selections of sericea lespedeza such as AU grazer are more palatable to cattle and mitigate the objections of cattlemen. Get assistance from your County Extension Service or Natural Resource Conservation Service to identify the plant or you can see pictures of the plant on the web at http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile? symbol=LECU . You may be able to locate natural stands in your area and be able to rent them cheaply for grazing. There is information on planting sericea lespedeza at www.scsrpc.org. Tannin containing plants may work several ways to reduce fecal egg counts. They have a high level of protein and the protein and tannins interact to improve protein nutrition of animals. Protein supplementation has been shown to suppress fecal egg counts in sheep and goats most likely due to stimulation of the immune system and tannin containing plants may work in this way. Also, these plants grow high off the ground and animals grazing these plants should pick up fewer infective larvae which are on the lower two to three inches of the plant. There is some research that shows that tannins may bind to the cuticle skin of worms and cause damage to it. There are many other proposed mechanisms by which tannins may work, but the important thing is that we have identified some tannin-containing plants that do suppress worms and we can develop this knowledge into application. In addition, there is potential that we may identify other tannin containing plants that suppress worms. There are a number of varieties of annual lespedezas which were formerly thought to not have tannins, but this needs to be reexamined as we now have better tests for tannins. These plants may be helpful for parasite control even if they are proved to not have tannins since they have high levels of protein and tend to grow high off the ground. There are also native lespedezas which grew in the tallgrass prairie and generally rare now on most native range sites. These plants could be useful since some have proven to have tannins. Copper Oxide Wire Particles Copper sulfate was found to be effective in controlling the Barberpole worm in the early 1900's and has been used in many deworming solutions since. One drawback was that

it typically required 100 cc of solution since copper sulfate is caustic and must be made up in a dilute solution. Copper oxide wire particles (COWP) were developed as a slow release form of copper to treat copper deficiency in Australia and New Zealand. One researcher working with COWP to supply copper observed a reduction in symptoms of worms in the treated animals and in 1990 some New Zealand researchers studied the effect of copper oxide wire capsules on worms. They observed that COWP were effective at removing only the Barberpole worm. Since our major worm during the summer in the Southeast U.S. is the Barberpole worm, COWP should be effective as a dewormer at this time of year. There have been a number of studies conducted in both sheep and goats in the US in recent years and there is a good summary written by ATTRA (Tools for Managing Internal Parasites in Small Ruminants: Copper Wire Particles at http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/copper_wire.html).

The work is very clear for sheep; administration of 1-2 grams COWP in a gelatin capsule for ewes or 1.0 g for lambs will reduce fecal egg counts 50-90% and seems to be more effective in growing animals. One must be careful with repeated use of COWP in sheep due to the potential for copper toxicity. However, COWP administration was repeated 4 times during the summer without toxicity. COWP is an effective dewormer for sheep when the Barberpole worm is the predominant species and details on its use in the ATTRA publication listed above. COWP have been shown to be effective in goats although in three studies at one location it did not appear to be effective because the Barberpole worm was not the primary worm.. However at other locations and multiple studies, COWP was an effective dewormer in goats. Since goats are more tolerant of copper, there is less concern about repeated use of the COWP capsules than for sheep. Basically, doses of COWP from 0.5 to 2.0 g appeared useful in reducing fecal egg counts from 50-80% in goats and appeared to be more effective in kids than in adults. A recent study on pregnant goats shows promise for the use of COWP incorporated in the feed (fed only once) to reduce fecal egg counts. For details on the use of COWP as a dewormer, refer to the above ATTRA publication. Trace Mineral Bolus

There have been two experiments at one location using a slow dissolving trace mineral bolus (Small-Trace for sheep, Agrimin Ltd., not available in the U.S.) as a treatment for worms in adult goats. In one experiment, there was a 75% reduction in fecal egg count and in the other study, there was over 50% reduction in fecal egg count. This was thought to be an effect of the copper oxide in the bolus. The bolus seemed to have some beneficial effects in reducing reinfection for 4-6 weeks. Research remains to be done in sheep. The high level of copper may limit the capsule to being used once during the worm season with sheep. Copper sulfate was used for deworming sheep before dewormer drugs were available. Copper sulfate was recommended for control of stomach worms (Barberpole worm) in sheep with 100 cc of a 1 % solution being given to a yearling or adult sheep and half that amount to a 3 month old lamb (USDA Farmers Bulletin 1330, 1925; there are several revisions of this bulletin). For tapeworms, they recommended 1% copper sulfate with 1% of snuff or powdered tobacco. The tobacco was steeped in water overnight and the copper sulfate added . The dose was 50cc for lambs and twice this amount for a full grown sheep. Other state experiment station bulletins recommended copper sulfate treatment for worms in sheep, often after an overnight fast. Studies at one location showed that 1 1/2% copper sulfate was effective at controlling the Barberpole worm in sheep (AVMA 43:163, 1937). A more recent study (2008) showed that a copper sulfate drench (following fasting ) caused a 60% fecal egg count reduction in ewes that had just been weaned. However, in another study where copper sulfate was incorporated in the feed for one day, it was not effective as a dewormer. Repeated use of copper sulfate has potential to cause copper toxicity in sheep although some reports indicated its use on a monthly basis for a year. Higher concentrations of copper sulfate in the drench (than 1.5%) are caustic. One source reported success with feeding a 3.3% mixture of copper sulfate in the salt which appeared promising for several months until sheep died from copper toxicity. When they reduced the concentration in the salt to 2%., it was ineffective at controlling worms. More research is needed on copper sulfate. Tobacco and Nicotine Sulfate Tobacco and nicotine sulfate have been recommended in old USDA and State Experiment Station Bulletins for control of parasites. Data and dose are sometimes sketchy in older literature as are quantitative results. It was recommended for control of intestinal worms (bankrupt worm and brown stomach worm). It must be remembered that nicotine sulfate is a nerve paralyzing toxin with which one hopes to use enough of the drug to paralyze the worm (causing him to turn loose and go out the digestive tract) without using too much, paralyzing (and killing) the animal. The margin of safety between an effective dose and killing the animal is not very wide, so one must be very careful when using this chemical as a dewormer. Most workers used 1-1.5% solution of 40% nicotine sulfate with 100 cc being given to a yearling or adult sheep and half that amount to a 3 month old lamb. It was often used in a mixture with copper sulfate (see above). It must be emphasized that using these compounds can be toxic to the sheep/goat. If you insist on experimenting with copper sulfate and/or nicotine sulfate,

use them with a few cull animals that you wont mind losing if you do have a problem with toxicity. Diatomaceous Earth Diatomaceous earth is fossilized unicellular marine or fresh water algae called diatoms. It is used as a food ingredient (read the labels on processed foods) and in swimming pool filters. There are cautions about using the swimming pool grade for feeding animals in that it can be contaminated with heavy metals whereas the food grade must be proven to have non toxic levels of heavy metals. Diatomaceous earth has been used for many years for control of various pests from grain weevils to houseflies. Goat producers that use it for deworming control often mix it with the mineral supplement or in the feed. Most claims are that it extends the time between dewormings although some claim that it kills worms in goats. There have been 4 or 5 scientific studies and the data consistently show that diatomaceous earth does not kill worms in goats although one study did show that at a very high level (5% of the diet), it had a slight effect. There is speculation that it may help fecal pellets to dry out faster which could reduce the success of eggs developing into infective L3 larvae. Research conducted on this aspect has not been conclusive. It is very difficult to study the claim that diatomaceous earth increases the time between dewormings. Herbal Dewormers A problem with herbal dewormers is that active ingredients may vary with the stage of maturity, environment (including soil that it is grown in, fertility, moisture and daylength pattern), processing and/or extraction procedure and variety of plant. If you look at herbal supplements in the pharmacy, the FDA has required manufacturers to standardize the products based on a major active ingredient i.e. Garlic is standardized based on concentration of allicin, a bioactive ingredient in garlic. When you buy dried cooking garlic for deworming sheep or goats, you have little idea of the concentration of allicin in it. This is the problem for other herbals because the active ingredient may be so low it is nearly zero in one plant material source and another source of plant material may contain higher than average level of active ingredient. Another problem is that common names do not always refer to the same plant. For example, wormwoods refer to plants of the genus Artimesia which includes several species, some of which have a very high level of artimesinin and some which do not have artimesinin and in one study, the efficacy of artimesia as a dewormer did not relate to its active ingredient artimesinin ie. some other substance must have been active in the plant. Therefore, when working with herbals, there may be inconsistencies in results for many reasons. The only way to prove a dewormer (alternative substance or pharmaceutical) is working for you is to do a fecal egg count before using the dewormer and 1-2 weeks after deworming on a half dozen or more animals. It may be possible for a consortium of producers to collect data and help identify herbs or herbal combinations which most commonly have an effect and these may be worth more in-depth research. There has been a good study on herbal dewormers conducted in Pakistan which reviewed 232 studies on bioactivity of plants on helminths (from tapeworms to liver flukes and everything in between). They

identified 32 plants for evaluation of their effectiveness as dewormers based on literature and local information from farmers and those providing veterinary services. They did a tremendous amount of research and identified 6 herbs with significant dewormer activity, most of which do not grow in the US or have a very limited distribution in the US. They also found that alcoholic extracts of the plants tended to be more effective than feeding the plant (or plant part) itself. Similar research needs to be done in the US, but the research required tremendous inputs of time and money.

Various herbs have been used as dewormers, including garlic, ginger, wormwoods, tansy, papaya seeds, pumpkin seeds, extracts of black walnut hulls etc. You can find many recommendations on various goat listservers and web sites, some written articles and word of mouth. There are even a few commercial herbal preparations available from various goat suppliers or on the internet. Caution, some herbs can be toxic if consumed at high levels! There are a few published scientific studies in recent years on herbal dewormers in goats. In one study, the herbal dewormer, composition not given and different combinations of herbs were used in different years and it appeared to have been fairly effective. One study showed that a wormwood native to the US (present in all states but Florida and Alabama) reduced fecal egg count by 50% after feeding a pound of air dried material a day for 4 days. There is another published study showed that a commercial herbal preparation failed to control worms in sheep. Another study indicated that herbal dewormers were not very effective (http://nodpa.com/newsletters/NODPANewsFinal_March08_Proof.pdf (Page 16).

There are several unpublished studies that failed to see a positive response to garlic. Many producers swear by garlic and other herbs, but good nutrition and management also have an effect. One producer used a product for 5 years and never lost a goat to worms until they had a dry year and the goats ran out of browse and were forced to graze the grass to the ground resulting in severe goat losses. They had to use conventional dewormers to rescue the remaining animals. Their management was preventing worm problems and not their product. There is much that we dont understand about herbal dewormers and therefore, one should not be surprised about different people reporting different results. Remember also that those who have less than positive results are not as vocal as those who have positive results. Fungus One promising alternative treatment is nematophagus fungus, a fungus normally present in the feces at a low level which parasitizes some of the developing worm larvae in the fecal pellet. There has been some promising research with feeding spores of this fungus to goats and sheep to increase the number of these fungi in the feces. The higher level of fungus in the fecal pellet kills most of the larvae in the pellet. Since animals have fewer infective larvae to pick up, the need for deworming is reduced or eliminated. There are currently two problems with the technology 1) the fungal spores must be fed every day, less frequent feeding will not work. 2) lack of a commercial source of spores. Hopefully some commercial company will develop an extended release bolus that would release spores for 90 days. There was a company in Denmark providing fungal spores for research, hoping to develop a product, but their parent company has been bought out and there is no longer a source of spores. Research is being conducted in Australia and India on the spores, so hopefully, in the future these studies will culminate in the development of a commercial product. In conclusion, there are some alternative dewormers that have significant research data to show they work, some may have limited data that merits further studies, but many of them are very lacking in data. If you choose to use these products, you need to monitor the animals closely for worms, using FAMACHA as a minimum and fecal egg counts are even better, since these products may or may not work. Also, one has to be aware of toxicity potential of some alternative dewormers.

Parasite Control for Goats Doing Your Own Research and Fecal Egg Counts by

The Southern Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control

Part 6 of Series Part 1 Parasite Control for Goats: Meet the Enemy Part 2 Managing the Barberpole Worm Part 3 Integrated Parasite Management With FAMACHA Part 4 Dewormers and Dewormer Resistance Part 5 Alternative dewormers -Do they work? The purpose of this article is two-fold, the first is to explain how to do your own fecal egg counts and second to explain how to conduct on-farm research such as determining whether your dewormer (drug or alternative) is working, monitoring the level of parasitism in your herd, determining the effectiveness of your parasite control program is or determining which animals are more resistant to the Barberpole worm. FAMACHA is an excellent tool to monitor the level of parasitism (by the Barberpole worm) in your goats and sheep and is much easier than doing fecal egg counts. However, while FAMACHA is effective for that purpose, fecal egg counts are more appropriate for research and testing purposes. FAMACHA cannot tell you anything about the level of infection of worms other than the Barberpole worm such as the Brown stomach worm or the Bankrupt worm (see the first article in this series (March)Since both types of worms lay eggs (but about half as many as the Barberpole worm), the eggs will be in the feces and be observed when doing a fecal egg count. Fecal egg counts (done by the modified McMaster procedure) enable one to see smaller changes in the level of parasitism (by roundworms). FAMACHA (or fecal egg counts done by smear or general floatation procedures) can give you some useful information about how well a dewormer is working, but fecal egg counts by the McMaster procedure can give you a clearer picture. If you are following worm infection every two weeks to learn the pattern on your own farm, FAMACHA scores are not as sensitive as fecal egg counts. But, fecal egg counts also have their own disadvantage in that it takes at least 3 weeks from the time an infected larvae is consumed until it is lays eggs. There is a possibility that your goat could consume a large of infective larvae (which consume blood while they are growing into mature egg-laying adults) and have anemia, but few eggs in the feces. Normally, most of the infective larvae are acquired steadily over the grazing season, but one should remember this weakness. Fecal egg counts also require purchase of some equipment, but depending on your resourcefulness, you can be doing fecal egg counts for less than $200.00. In this article, we cover how to do some basic types of research using your own fecal egg counts. The first one is to test how effective a dewormer (or alternative dewormer) is in killing worms in our animals. This is called a fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT). To do this, we need a group of animals (test group) that we dose with the dewormer or alternative dewormer. We could use two or three test groups to test

several dewormers at the same time. We need to have a minimum of 6 animals in each test group, but ten or twelve animals are is better. The reason for this is that some animals will respond differently to the dewormer; the dewormer may kill 60% of the worms in one animal and 90% in another animal and we want to get an average that represents our herd. Also, sometimes an individual animal can mount a hyperimmune response (also called self cure) and go from 5,000 eggs per gram to 400 eggs per gram. This will happen less than 1% of the time, but it does happen. We also want to make sure the animals have significant worms (at least 500 eggs per gram), so we would do fecal egg counts on them ahead of time or select animals with FAMACHA scores of three or four for our test groups. First, we collect fecal samples from our test group just before treating them with the dewormer (or alternative dewormer). We treat with the dewormer and let the animals run with the rest of the herd and bring them in between 10 and 14 days later. We collect fecal samples from each animal that we gave the dewormer (or alternative dewormer) to for fecal egg counts. The reason for waiting 10 to 14 days is that sometimes worms will only get a bellyache from the dewormer, stop laying eggs immediately but if still alive they will resume laying eggs within a week or so. We then calculate fecal egg count reduction which represents the percentage of worms killed by the dewormer. It is calculated by subtracting the second fecal egg count from the first one and dividing it by the first fecal egg count. This is done for each animal. For example, if we had 1,000 eggs per gram in the fecal sample before deworming and 10-14 days later the fecal sample only had 200 eggs/gram, we would say we had an 80% reduction in fecal egg count calculated as ((1,000-200)/1000) X 100. Average these values for all the animals in the test group. This means that we killed 80% of the worms in the animal (or we would say a FECR of 80%) If we did not have resistance to the dewormer, we would expect close to a 100% fecal egg count reduction. If we have less than a 95% fecal egg count reduction, it means that we have the beginnings of dewormer resistance. It is evident from our data that we do have a level of dewormer resistance. At this level of dewormer resistance, it will be expected to get worse (kill a lower percentage of worms) fairly quickly (exactly how quickly it gets worse depends on many factors). However, it still can be a useful dewormer until we get down to killing only 50% of the worms. Very few alternative dewormers will kill 100% of the worms, but if they kill 50-80% of the worms, they can still be useful to keep worm burden down to where the animals can tolerate them. Dont forget that after you take the second samples from animals and do their fecal egg counts, those with higher fecal egg counts (fecal egg counts requiring deworming will be discussed later) may need dewormed. A laboratory test that is an alternative to this test is the DrenchRite test, a laboratory test to determine the resistance to several dewormers. Further information can be found at http://www.scsrpc.org/SCSRPC/Files/Files/D'Rite%20Scsrpc11-05.pdf . Basically, fecal samples are collected from several animals and submitted to a laboratory at University of Georgia for a larval development assay. This evaluates the resistance of worms in your herd to all classes of dewormers. The disadvantage is that alternative dewormers cannot be tested and the test costs $395.00.

Some alternative dewormers are claimed to boost the immune system (takes time) and will slowly kill worms or prevent/reduce new infective L3 larvae from becoming established in the digestive tract of the animal. So, we need to make a slight change in how we conduct the on-farm study. The major change will be to have a group of animals that receive no alternative dewormer (often called a control group; we need to see if the dewormer is better than no treatment at all). The animals in the control group should be similar to those in the test group, including similar levels of fecal egg counts. We need to take fecal egg counts weekly (in both test and control groups) over a month after administering the treatment and compare the test group to the control group. Both groups should be managed as one herd. In this case, we would expect fecal egg counts in the control group to increase (assuming that infective larvae are available to be picked up by the animal). If fecal egg counts in the test group increase similar to the control group, it means our dewormer is not working. If our dewormer is working, fecal egg counts will increase at a slower rate than for the control group, reducing the need for deworming. The dewormer may actually cause a decrease in fecal egg counts and hold it at a lower level than the control group indicating a very effective dewormer. If you are using an alternative dewormer, you need to also monitor your test and control groups of animals by FAMACHA to prevent losses from parasitism. You need to have a plan on what you are going to do if you need to deworm. One could choose to use a conventional dewormer, but if one is certified organic, this needs to be planned with your certifying agency. It could involve moving animals to a pasture that has not been grazed in several months (few infective larvae) or moving them onto browse or sericea lespedeza. Another use of fecal egg counts is to evaluate the parasite resistance (see box) of animals. This may be done to some extent by keeping track of FAMACHA scores and the number of times that animals are dewormed in a year. This will enable you to cull the animals that are dewormed the most (assumed to be due to low resistance or resilience to Barberpole worm). Fecal egg counts are a more accurate method of determining which animals are resistant to worms. Some sheep associations are implementing progeny testing for this trait and calculating EPD (expected progeny difference) for fecal egg counts. A Kiko goat association and a Boer goat association are also interested in implementing this program. These associations have a specific protocol which must be followed. What follows is a generic protocol that is usually applied to young animals being selected for replacements. After weaning and when the animals have recovered from weaning shock, they are all dewormed with an effective dewormer. One should check the fecal egg counts of a few animals a week or two later to make sure that they are zero, or close to zero. The animals are all grazed together for 8 weeks and a fecal sample is taken at the end of 8 weeks for a fecal egg count. It would be advisable to monitor animals with FAMACHA in case animals get heavily infected. If several animals become 4's in 6 weeks, fecal samples may need to be taken at that time and animals dewormed as necessary. One can then select the animals with lowest fecal egg counts for replacements. This tool is especially important for bucks since they contribute over half of the genetics of the next generation.

Animals may be either resistant to parasites or resilient (tolerant). Resistance is that fewer worms become established in the animal as compared to other animals in the herd. This is thought to be predominantly due to having a stronger immune system which suppresses the worms better, but one study indicates that an animals grazing habits (how close they graze to the ground) may be a factor. Resilience (or tolerance) is that one animal with 1,000 Barberpole worms will show less anemia than the other animals in the herd with 1,000 Barberpole worms. Resilience may be due to a greater ability to make blood as compared to other animals. In this case, a resilient animal would have a lower FAMACHA score (less anemia) as compared to other animals. However, we cant tell if an animal with a lower FAMACHA score is resistant (fewer worms sucking blood) or tolerant (makes blood faster to replace what the Barberpole worm sucks). But if we select for a low FAMACHA score, we know some of it will be due to greater resistance to the Barberpole worm. If we select animals for a lower fecal egg count, we are selecting for resistant animals. From studies in Australia and New Zealand indicate that it is better to select resistant animals than resilient animals because resilient animals will be producing more eggs than resistant animals, creating more infective larvae for everyone else in the herd, resilient or not. Fecal egg counts can be very effective for understanding patterns of infection and where parasite management needs to be changed, or to determine if a change is helping. This is done by randomly selecting a group of animals (six to twelve head) to follow during the warm season (assuming the Barberpole worm is the major parasite in your area). We will follow these same animals throughout the warm season, so it may be useful to mark them with an additional eartag or other mark to enable them to be readily sorted for sampling. The best way to randomly sample your animals is if you have 100 animals and want to select 10 animals to follow, select every tenth animal that goes through the chute. The first animals to the chute are usually healthier whereas the last animals are less healthy and more prone to worms, so we want to select some of each kind of animal. The time to start will vary for different geographical areas, but one should probably start monitoring animals when daily temperatures are getting into the 70's. Generally, taking fecal samples every three weeks is adequate to monitor the level of parasitism. It is also useful if one can keep a record of rainfall since moisture is important for eggs to develop into infective larvae. Recording other animal management practices such as which pasture was grazed, when moved, supplemental feed, kidding or lambing, etc. can assist one in interpreting fecal egg count pattern. If fecal egg counts are graphed, one can often observe when the infection level has increased in animals. One has to think back to what happened four to eight weeks prior to the increase in fecal egg counts because it takes three to four weeks from the time your animal picks up infective larvae until those larvae are mature worms, producing eggs. The second article in this series (published in April) on the biology of the parasite can help in understanding why fecal egg counts increased and some management options to help prevent it next year. Your veterinarian, state sheep/goat extension specialist, parasitologist can help you with interpreting the data as well as suggesting changes in management.

Fecal egg counting procedure There are many procedures for determining fecal egg counts and many variations of each procedure according to equipment available. There are references to other procedures on the web at the end of the article. The McMaster fecal egg counting procedure is a good technique to monitor parasite level of grazing animals and is commonly used for parasite research. It is the method of choice for producers because of quantitative data and simplicity. Collecting samples A. Watch goats drop pellets, collect fresh pellets and record animal numbers. The pellets should still be glossy when collected. B. Use patient examination glove, lubricate with water or spit and tease 5-6 pellets out of the rectum. Store in labeled (with animal name or number) ziplock bags on ice or in refrigerator for up to 7 days before doing fecal egg counts. Do Not Freeze! If fecal samples are not refrigerated, they can start to hatch in several hours at warm temperatures, reducing fecal egg counts. Samples can also be stored in patient examination gloves by closing the open end of the glove with a rubber band and writing numbers on glove with sharpie marking pen. Principle of Fecal egg counting procedure Loosen worm eggs trapped between fecal particles and separate eggs by floating them away from fecal particles. Must use proper ratio of feces and solution to get correct eggs/gram. Choose one of the following flotation solutions. A. Add 1 cup water to 1 1/4 cup sugar and mix (easiest to mix, good choice) B. 34% solution of zinc sulfate (used for footbath) C. Saturated Sodium Nitrate solution (28% N, fertilizer) D. Saturated solution of salt, rock salt or uniodized salt (requires heating and a lot of stirring) E. Can purchase Fecasol or generic fecal float solution for $5-10./gal from vet supply house (requires a prescription from your vet) Equipment needed Microscope 10X objective 10X wide field (WF) eyepiece, mechanical stage is handy. Can get one for $75.00 EZ Scope http://www.microscopes-for-children.com Model MEZ 119 (do a web search for MEZ-119 for sources). Many childrens or toy microscopes have a narrow field of view ie, cannot see lines on both sides of lane of McMaster slide.

You can get a used microscope from many places E-bay, classified ads in newspaper. Your high school science teacher may help you get access to a microscope. Your vet or the doctors lab tech may have an old microscope that they can sell you cheap. You can find out who services their microscopes since they may also sell used microscopes. Some friends or relatives may have a microscope from their college days stashed in the attic. McMaster slide (green) from Chalex Corp phone 425-391-1169 or www.vetslides.com $20. This slide has a top and bottom with a space between that you put the solution to be counted. It has 2 squares and each square is divided into six columns. The column is the same width that you can see in the eyepiece of the microscope, so you can count up and down the columns.

Thirty cc syringe Balance or scale to weigh to .1 grams ($20.00 new on Ebay) or three cc. syringe with end cut off Teaspoon/tongue depressor/popsicle stick/spatula Eyedropper Salsa dish Tea strainer Procedure 1. Fill syringe to exactly 28 cc with floatation solution. 2. Add 28 cc of solution to salsa dish 3a. If you have a balance, 2.0 g of feces can be weighed out directly into tea strainer. It may be necessary to cut a pellet with a spoon to get 2.0 grams. 3b. If you do not have a scale, you can mash fecal pellets into a 3 cc syringe (end cut off) and form a solid column of feces. Push plunger to 2 cc mark and cut off excess feces. Push the 2 cc out into a tea strainer in salsa dish. Two cc of solid packed feces = 2.0 grams. 4. Use spoon or other tool to crush, mash and break up feces and form a slurry without lumps, will take 2-3 minutes. 5. Lift tea strainer out of salsa dish and discard residue in it. 6. Stir solution in salsa dish 8 times and use eyedropper to fill one chamber of slide 7. Stir solution in salsa dish 8 times and use eyedropper to fill other chamber of slide 8. Allow slide to sit 5 minutes. 9. Look at slide under microscope and focus on air bubbles in sample

10. Move slide on microscope down lane one and up the next lane looking for eggsoval football looking objects (see picture below)

11. Can identify tapeworm eggs and coccidia. We are most interested in roundworm eggs, so just count them 12. Count all eggs in 6 lanes on one square (it may be useful to use a lap counter) 13. Count all eggs in 6 lanes on the other square and total eggs from both squares 14. Multiply total by 50 to get eggs per gram Care of McMaster slide Wash in dishwashing detergent and water Sling out excess water and allow to air dry Roll in paper towel until next use. Here are some links to sites on how to do your own fecal egg counts www.luresext.edu/goats/library/fec.html http://www.scsrpc.org/SCSRPC/Files/Files/RKJMMcMaster.pdf http://www.jackmauldin.com/fecal_testing_equipt.htm http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/dxendopar/techniques/mcmasteregg.html Good pictures of worm eggs can be found on this web site http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/documents/Parasitology/EggID/EggID.htm# Strongyle = roundworms, includes Barberpole worm, Bankrupt worm, Brown stomach worm, Black scour worm Nematodirus = thread-necked intestinal worm Truchuris = whip worms Strongyloides = thread worms Count only roundworm eggs although you may also see eggs of thread worms, whip worms, thread-necked worms and coccidia (see pictures on above referenced web site). Roundworm eggs look like rounded end footballs with a yolk and shell. Coccidia look

similar, but are only about the size of roundworm eggs. The thread-necked worm egg is very, very large. The whip worm egg has a polar plug on each end. Threadworms have what looks to be a baby worm in it rather than a yolk. It is difficult to interpret what the number of coccidia means. Virtually all sheep and goats will have some coccidia, some more than others. Yes, about 24 hours after an animal gets diarrhea from coccidosis, you will see many, many coccidia when doing a fecal egg count and coccidia numbers will decrease as the animal gets well. But in the first 24 hours that the animal has coccidiosis and diarrhea, there will often be few coccidia in the feces. Since the damage to the small intestine is reduced by early treatment, do not wait until you see a lot of coccidia in a sample of a goat with diarrhea to treat them. If you think they have coccidiosis (history of stress such as disease, weaning, shipping and have diarrhea), treat them immediately for coccidiosis. Thread worms are generally not a problem, but sometimes increase in animals with high fecal egg counts. They can be particularly bad in young animals raised in a stall with wet bedding, because these worms can directly penetrate the skin. Now you know another reason for keeping bedding clean. We do not know how to interpret whip worms either. They sometimes increase in animals with high fecal egg counts, but generally do not cause sickness. Thread-necked worms can be a significant problem in cool climates. But, we only count roundworm eggs for our purposes. Now that you have a fecal egg count (number of roundworm eggs per gram), what does it mean? We can decide if it is high enough that the animal needs to be dewormed. If it is the warm season of the year and the Barberpole worm is the dominant species (ask your vet if in doubt), you need to deworm dry does and bucks when the fecal egg count exceeds 2,000 eggs per gram. For lactating does, yearlings and kids, 1,000 eggs per gram or more is reason to deworm. Fecal egg counts for deworming are similar for sheep. If you have lactating dairy does, those with over 750 eggs per gram will require deworming. FAMACHA is a better tool to determine when animals need dewormed and should be used with fecal egg counts to determine if deworming is needed. If it is the cool season time of the year, and the brown stomach worm or bankrupt worm are the predominant species, they lay much fewer eggs than the Barberpole worm and you will need to think about deworming when fecal egg counts are half of the above levels. However, one should also give consideration to fecal consistency (diarrhea is a major symptom of infection for non-Barberpole worms) and body condition (has the goat lost weight or look wormy like?) in making decisions on the need for deworming. Consult your local vet, state extension sheep/goat specialist or parasitologist for assistance in interpreting fecal egg counts.