Dr James O’Shaughnessy from the Dept. of Agriculture Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Backweston joins Ciarán Lynch on this week’s OviCast podcast to discuss Nematodirus disease in lambs.

James starts by describing the life cycle of Nematodirus and how it differs from other stomach worms.

He discusses how it affects lambs and the symptoms to watch out for and he also discusses the limitations of faecal egg counts for this condition.

With the recent release of this year’s Nematodirus forecast, James explains how to use this information and how prevailing weather conditions can affect this from year to year.

James moves on to discuss treatment options, offering some insight on the choice and timing of treatment before then discussing the risk of concurrent infection with coccidiosis and how to approach this.

Nematodirus can cause severe damage to young lambs and James advocates making use of the regional veterinary labs where sudden losses occur to confirm the cause.

Finally, James highlights the importance of correct dosing technique when treating for Nematodirus.

The 2022 Nematodirus forecast can be found here:

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/da3e5-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marines-2022-nematodirus-forecast/#:~:text=The%20maximum%20Nematodirus%20egg%20hatching,term%20average%20of%20soil%20temperatures

For more episodes from the OviCast podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/sheep/ovicast-sheep-podcast