The annual liver fluke forecast issued by the Department this Monday advises that the risk of liver fluke is high for most parts of the country, apart from isolated areas of the east and southeast, where there is a risk of occasional losses in untreated animals.

The past year’s weather, including mild and wet conditions over most of the country last summer, has been favourable to the parasite’s spread. Lambs tested by Department vets in 24 counties showed a 22% increase in the number of those exposed to moderate fluke challenge, and 24% in those exposed to heavy fluke challenge, compared with last year’s figures. These infected lambs were from the midlands and west.

Meanwhile, testing of factory cattle under Animal Health Ireland’s Beef HealthCheck programme has shown that “nationally the frequency of fluke-damaged livers in cattle at slaughter has increased slightly over the summer months and into the autumn, with live fluke detected at low but consistent levels through this period”.

Fluke was more frequent in cattle from northwestern and western counties, the department added.

Rumen fluke

According to the Department, there have been “significant, but as of yet isolated incidents” where immature rumen fluke has been diagnosed as the principal cause of mortality in both cattle and sheep on both the east and west coasts in the last six weeks.

Before applying treatments, the Department advises farmers to seek advice from their vet and have all cases of scouring or sudden deaths in cattle and sheep fully investigated. “The finding of rumen fluke eggs alone in faecal samples is not reason enough to warrant treatment of animals,” the Department has warned.

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