New York State Integrated Pest Management Program; Publications; View Item; JavaScript is disabled for your browser. In the past, management of flies in dairy and livestock barns often relied solely on insecticide use. Integrated Fly Management Program Effective fly control for Poultry, Livestock and Garbage Dump through IFMP. Integrated Parasite Management For Livestock . With parasites developing resistance to all dewormers and more farmers producing livestock by . Management is the most important thing to consider. The whole system affects internal parasites. Nutrition and pasture management can help prevent problems by improving the health of the animals. There are soil organisms that kill or prevent the development of internal parasites. Strategic deworming means planning the timing when deworming is done.
This can also be an important part of any management scheme. Little is known about the effectiveness of any alternative dewormer. Changes will have to done slowly while observing their outcome. Table of Contents Introduction. Internal parasites are considered by some to be one of the most economically important constraints in raising livestock. Confinement and pasture- based animals are almost certain to be exposed to worms at some point in their life. Animals raised on the dry and arid rangelands are much less likely to be infested. But if these animals are brought to the more humid climates east of the Rockies, worms will be a major problem for these animals. Most producers are aware of the problems that worms cause, which range from decreased productivity of their animals to death. Animals are usually routinely dewormed with different commercial chemicals, by owners using a variety of deworming schedules. Every dewormer on the market has had some resistance built up to it by the internal parasites that infest livestock. This resistance means that not all the worms are killed during deworming. The surviving worms pass that genetic resistance on to offspring. By looking at the whole farm as an interrelated system, it becomes apparent that there are parts of the system that can be managed to decrease internal parasites and their effects. The growing concern about the resistance of internal parasites to all classes of dewormers has caused people to look for alternatives. LIVESTOCK (SHEEP) INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) MONITORING TOOLS. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an important aspect of sustainable agriculture. It is based on the planned and strategic use of pest control methods.As dewormers lose their effectiveness, the livestock community fears increasing economic losses from worms. Much attention both in the research community and on the farm is being devoted to discovering ways to prevent and treat internal parasites without relying on heavy doses of chemical dewormers. Many people claim this treatment or that control measure works, but there are more questions than answers. There is no simple alternative way of preventing or treating worms. By looking at the whole farm as an interrelated system, it becomes apparent that there are parts of the system that can be managed to decrease internal parasites and their effects. These management adjustments not only postpone the day when chemical controls no longer work, but they also may decrease costs and increase the overall health of the animal. Back to top. Nutrition. Nutrition plays a major role in how well animals are able to overcome the detrimental effects of internal parasites. In fact, the signs of parasitism can often be used as a symptom of some other problem, usually poor nutrition. In an article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1. These researchers used fish meal as their source of by- pass protein. However, there are forages that also have an increased level of by- pass protein because they contain tannins. These include birdsfoot trefoil and lespedeza. The protein in native warm season grasses also has a higher level of by- pass protein. Phosphorus. There is also research that shows that when the phosphorus level of the diet was at a level of . An understanding of the life cycles of the different parasites within the whole soil- plant- animal system will help show the interrelationships between these three components. Managing internal parasites is just like managing fleas in dogs and cats. The major part of the parasite life cycle is outside of the animal. This point will help the producer to choose management strategies that reduce parasite levels on his or her farm and decrease the usage of chemical dewormers. The same principle is used in integrated pest management for vegetables and other crops. Many farmers closely monitor their animals but pay little attention to the plants and soil. Pasture contamination by infective larvae is the primary factor to deal with. If you start with an understanding of the interrelationship between the animal, the plants it eats and the soil on which those plants grow, then it becomes clearer how parasites infect the animal and how they can be managed so as not to cause as many problems. Everything a farmer does to his or her animals, including the grazing management, affects the manure, which affects the animal's environment. For example, animals that continuously graze a pasture eat the grass into the ground, while contaminating the soil with so many parasites that nothing outside of regular deworming with chemicals will control them. By using controlled grazing methods that allow pastures to rest and soil life to function well, contamination can be reduced. This reduction occurs because soil organisms, including earthworms, dung beetles, and nematophagous fungi will destroy or keep a lot of the parasite eggs and larvae from developing. Keeping the grass in a more vegetative stage, and tall enough to provide the animal with adequate forage, will provide better nutrition to keep the animal healthier, strengthening the immune system to prevent the adult worms from producing eggs. Parasites do not cause as much harm to a healthy, well- nourished animal. The parasites that are present will not deplete the host as much as in an animal that is malnourished. Parasite loads affecting wildlife generally do not cause the death of the host, because the parasites need the host to survive. The same principle applies to livestock. Pasture contamination can be reduced through management. Livestock will avoid manure piles and the grass surrounding them. This behavior also helps them avoid eating larvae. The height of the pasture sward can affect parasites. The majority of worm larvae crawl only one inch from the ground onto plants, so not allowing animals to graze below that point will cut down on a lot of infestation. This is one reason sheep tend to have more problems with internal parasites. They eat much lower to the ground than cattle do, picking up higher numbers of larvae. Therefore, it is important to monitor grazing sheep closely so they don't graze too low. Larvae migrate from the manure no more than 1. If livestock are not forced to eat close to their own manure, they will eat fewer larvae. This occurs right after lambing, and is due to the ewe and doe's immune system becoming temporarily less effective. By treating animals at this time, the exposure to newborn and young lambs (those most susceptible to parasites) is minimized. Good grazing management includes the use of clean pasture to minimize re- infection. Clean pasture is pasture that has not been grazed by the host animal (in this case sheep and goats) for 1. It may be new pasture, pasture grazed by livestock such as cattle or horses which do not share parasites with sheep (goats do share parasites with sheep), or pasture that has been hayed, renovated, or rotated with row crops. There is some killing of parasites on pasture during the winter due to freezing and thawing; however, snow cover insulates the larvae. Summer is the time in the Southern states when most larval kill will occur on pastures. Sunlight will kill them, and this occurrence can be used to determine which pastures can be used in the fall and into the winter. Grazing down to 2- 4 inches from the ground allows more sunlight to get to those larvae and increases their chances of drying out and being killed. Warmth, oxygen and moisture are the three most important things that increase the chances that larvae will survive on pasture. Other articles in the list discuss the deworming effects of certain plants, such as plantain. The plantain must be young for the animals to eat it readily as it loses palatability when it becomes mature. The three most important things for larvae survival. Feed troughs and water sources located where they can be contaminated with feces will increase the chances of livestock infestation. This is only one reason not to water directly from ponds, or to allow animals continuous access to water sources. Feeders should be cleaned and elevated. Calving and lambing areas, as well as other holding areas, should be clean and dry. Prevent the transmission of infestations from new arrivals to the herd or flock by deworming them before arrival and again three weeks later. Cattle are mainly infested by other species. The cattle parasite of most concern is Ostertagia ostertagi, the brown stomach worm. The barber pole worm, Haemonchus contortus, is a stomach worm that can severely affect sheep. See Suggested Reading list for articles that discusses the life cycle and infective larval stages of worms. Back to top. Immunity While it is usually neither possible nor advisable to completely eliminate internal parasites in sheep or other livestock, reduction of parasite load can be achieved. Many people have found, and research has shown, that adult animals rarely need to be wormed. This immunity keeps the parasites from reproducing but rarely kills them. An example of an effective parasite control program can be found in Tennessee. Dennis Onks, superintendent of the Highland Rim Experiment Station in Springfield, Tennessee, has not wormed the adult cattle on the farm in eight years. They are wormed at weaning and then not again. They have never shown any signs of internal parasites and their condition is excellent. These animals are on a high plane of nutrition, have a low stress level, and are strictly culled on production. All these things work together to produce an animal that shows no signs of internal parasites.
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