Stock from over 500 properties were tested this year using the ELISA diagnostic tool, considered the most advanced method for discovering early liver fluke infection and the best way to detect fluke in cattle.

It is the fourth consecutive year that Virbac has sponsored the test for producers in an effort to encourage better detection and management of the harmful parasite.

While commending producers for taking up the test as a vital control measure, world-renowned liver fluke expert Dr Joe Boray is urging them to be proactive in treating affected stock for early stage infection, particularly before predicted rains trigger further fluke activity.

“April and May are traditionally the months when immature fluke numbers are at their highest and most destructive, following pick-up from infested pastures during late summer and early autumn,” Dr Boray said.

“It is important to kill flukes early to stop their destructive migration through the liver tissue to the bile ducts where they become egg laying adults.

"Autumn treatment of cattle will minimise liver damage and improve weight gains in cattle, boosting profits for producers.

“It will also reduce pasture contamination, which could increase quickly if it rains across the known fluke areas of Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

"The parasite’s intermediate host snail, which can survive drought underground, is unearthed after rain, allowing flukes to rapidly re-infest pastures.”

To most effectively combat early infection, Dr Boray advises producers use a triclabendazole-based drench applied orally as opposed to a pour-on, saying that while convenient, pour-ons have been proven to be less effective, more prone to inducing resistance and more expensive.

Research has also proven that triclabendazole applied orally is absorbed into the bloodstream faster and more efficiently than in a pour-on, resulting in a higher concentration of the drug hitting and killing the parasite.

SOURCE: The Land, NSW