With Liver Fluke costing Irish farmers €90million every year, Teagasc Advisor Gary Fisher, joins Catherine Egan on this week’s Beef Edge podcast to give an insight into fluke treatment on farm, when to dose and what products to treat each stage.

Liver Fluke is a parasite on many farms and Gary explains that recent high temperatures and the extended grazing season may lead to high fluke levels on farms this year with the DAFM Liver Fluke forecast indicating high disease prevalence along the west coast.

Gary describes the life cycle of fluke and the importance of using the correct product to treat the correct stage and he advises that farmers sampling for BEEP-S that would have results back from the lab, if they had a negative liver fluke result, it would not necessarily mean they had no incidence of liver fluke. Due to the life cycle of the parasite and the fact that the samples were taken before 1st October, it means the eggs may not have been in the testing sample.

The Animal Health Ireland Beef Health Check Report is also a useful tool to help farmers check how successful their treatment plan is with the farm history and land type important factors to consider.

For further Information:

DAFM Liver Fluke forecast:

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/d5152-liver-fluke-forecast-november-2021/

Beef Health Check Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1CdI-_wvQw

Liver Fluke the facts:

https://animalhealthireland.ie/assets/uploads/2021/06/PC-Liver-Fluke-2021.pdf?dl=1

Rumen Fluke - the facts:

https://animalhealthireland.ie/assets/uploads/2021/06/PC-Rumen-Fluke-2021.pdf?dl=1

For more episodes and information covered on the Beef Edge, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge

Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com.