Any animal coming into a farm should be seen as a potential contaminant. For example, from a liver fluke point of view, a single adult fluke in an animal has the capacity to produce 20,000 eggs daily, and there can be dozens of adults present in an infected animal. Once these eggs hit pasture, if there are intermediate hosts (mud/water snails) present, upwards of 600 infective fluke larvae can result from one single egg. Burdens can escalate extremely quickly, and internal parasites need to be treated as contagious diseases. It is very important that bought-in animals are treated using a quarantine dose.
Equally, if a farmer takes on new land, the same principals apply to his or her own cattle, regardless of previous treatments and particularly if the ground is heavy. These animals may be carrying small parasite burdens that are not escalating based on the current land type (e.g. low snail activity/very dry). However, these parasite burdens could potentially surge in numbers and pathogenicity if conditions are favourable on the new land. Whilst we obviously don't want incoming animals to bring in parasites, we definitely want to avoid bringing in any resistant parasite populations, which is why product selection when quarantine dosing is vitally important.
Any animal coming into a farm should be seen as a potential contaminant. For example, from a liver fluke point of view, a single adult fluke in an animal has the capacity to produce 20,000 eggs daily, and there can be dozens of adults present in an infected animal. Once these eggs hit pasture, if there are intermediate hosts (mud/water snails) present, upwards of 600 infective fluke larvae can result from one single egg. Burdens can escalate extremely quickly, and internal parasites need to be treated as contagious diseases. It is very important that bought-in animals are treated using a quarantine dose.
Equally, if a farmer takes on new land, the same principals apply to his or her own cattle, regardless of previous treatments and particularly if the ground is heavy. These animals may be carrying small parasite burdens that are not escalating based on the current land type (e.g. low snail activity/very dry). However, these parasite burdens could potentially surge in numbers and pathogenicity if conditions are favourable on the new land. Whilst we obviously don't want incoming animals to bring in parasites, we definitely want to avoid bringing in any resistant parasite populations, which is why product selection when quarantine dosing is vitally important.
