Worm Count for Livestock and Poultry
The routine use of wormers on grazing animals, together with grazing management has been highly successful in the past. Now many worms have become resistant to the wormers we have at our disposal. Worm control is vital for healthy animals however, it is the overuse of wormers that has caused the resistance problem.
British Veterinary Association Guidelines show that using a worm count to identify which animals are carrying the worm burden and then only worming those animals with the appropriate wormer can help to alleviate the problem.
Wormcounting under the microscope
So what is a worm count?
- A worm count is an examination of a sample of faeces (dung) under a microscope. A count is taken of the number of worm eggs present and the information is used to monitor the worm burden in livestock.
- The results are presented as ‘eggs per gram’ (epg) of faeces. There is an easy to understand key on your Wormcount.com result sheet.
- The number of eggs is an indication of the number of adult worms in the gut of your animal.
- Lungworm and liver fluke screens are also available for at-risk animals
Worm counts can be used to:
- Help determine the need to worm
- Check the efficacy of your parasite control programme
- Give information on the amount of contamination going onto the pasture
Wormcount.com routinely carries out worm counts on individual animals or flock and herd samples. We screen all grazing livestock as well as poultry.
Click here to learn about some of the worms we find when screening your samples.
Whether you have one goat in the garden, a small flock of sheep, pet alpacas or a herd of dairy cattle, Wormcount.com will screen for all common parasites and give you a full report with clear recommendations.