Cattle lungworm survey launched
The survey will remain open all year.
The Control of Worms Sustainably (COWS) group has launched a new survey to discover more about the treatment of lungworm in the UK.
It follows an industry workshop last year, hosted by COWS and supported by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, where it was recognised that a standardised approach to assessing wormer efficacy was necessary.
Helen Carty, veterinary centre manager for Scotland's Rural College, explained: “In recent years, we have been aware of reports of suspected lack of efficacy of wormers to treat lungworm infections in cattle.
“But no-one is sure whether this due to growing resistance of lungworm to the wormers or is it solely down to poor administration, such as under-dosing or inappropriate timing?”
COWS hopes that the results of the survey will help them to learn more about when outbreaks of lungworm occur, the class of stock most affected, the clinical signs shown, and how well the cattle respond to treatment.
The survey will stay open throughout 2024. Veterinary surgeons can submit to it as many times as they wish to. The results will be published in 2025.
Ms Carty added: “We would like vets to supply information from lungworm outbreaks, tell us about any testing undertaken and response to treatment.
“We are not expecting to see a lot of survey forms coming in until the second half of the grazing season but want vets to be aware that the survey is available.”
The survey can be accessed here.
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