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As more farmers are taking dung samples from cows for worms, anomalies are emerging between what they are being told in the bulk tank milk health screens compared with what the dung samples are telling them.
In many cases, the milk test says they have worms and the dung samples says they are clear.
From what I can see, the milk test is less reliable.
It is an ELISA test that just highlights exposure to disease or parasites. Most cows would have been exposed to worm parasites as calves so it’s not surprising that antibodies still exist.
The dung sample counts eggs.
As adult worms lay eggs, where there are no eggs there are no worms and pastures must therefore be clean, so there is no need to dose cows for worms in that case, even if the milk test is showing positive.
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