How soon can young animals exhibit coccidiosis symptoms?
Coccidiosis has a three-week pre-patent period. This means that it takes approximately 21 days for the parasite to complete its lifecycle and produce oocysts in the animal's faeces as well as the scour symptoms we associate with the condition.
In sheep, there is a decent level of immunity transferred to the lambs via colostrum. This is provided the ewe is in good condition at lambing, has gotten sufficient protein in her pre-lambing diet to produce a good volume of potent colostrum and that we get the right volume of colostrum into the newborn lamb.
If the above occurs, the lamb will be covered from coccidiosis for 3-4 weeks. After this, the immunity subsides and ingested coccidia oocysts can proliferate in the animal's intestine. Add our 21-day pre-patent period to the initial 3-4 weeks of coverage and we can expect to see coccidiosis symptoms from around six weeks of age.
Be weary, this is the same time (geography depending) that we expect Nematodirus symptoms on farms. These symptoms are similar to coccidiosis infection and the same products do not treat both. If in doubt, take a faecal sample.
Calves
In calves it is less straightforward. The 'coverage' that calves recieve via colostrum is insufficient to prevent coccidia from proliferating in the gut. Hence, we can expect to see coccidiosis as early as 3-4 weeks of age, though timing of initial symptoms are farm-dependent.
How do we avoid this? By maximising hygine in the calving pens and subsequent rearing pen and preventing the animals from experiencing a high burden of oosysts in its environment.
- Bedding pens deep and keeping bedding dry.
- Clipping cows' tails and keeping them clean at calving.
- Raising drinkers off the ground.
- Using the proper disinfectants in calving and rearing pens - chorocresol/amine-based.
- Not mixing young calves with older calves.
- Drench full group one week in advance of symptoms based on history or as soon as thrive drops/first case of cocci occurs.
- Chopping long fibre to muzzle width and mixing through calf ration.
- Moving troughs outside rearing pens.
- Designate clothing, gloves and wellies for calf house that never leave.
Coccidia live very successfully in grass pastures too. One way of reducing this burden is to alternate between sheep and cattle on pastures. As coccidia are species-specific, any cattle coccidia ingested by the sheep will not reproduce or have any negative effect on the sheep.
A word of caution - the above is not advisable on high liver fluke-risk pastures.
Drenches
How soon can young animals exhibit coccidiosis symptoms?
Coccidiosis has a three-week pre-patent period. This means that it takes approximately 21 days for the parasite to complete its lifecycle and produce oocysts in the animal's faeces as well as the scour symptoms we associate with the condition.
In sheep, there is a decent level of immunity transferred to the lambs via colostrum. This is provided the ewe is in good condition at lambing, has gotten sufficient protein in her pre-lambing diet to produce a good volume of potent colostrum and that we get the right volume of colostrum into the newborn lamb.
If the above occurs, the lamb will be covered from coccidiosis for 3-4 weeks. After this, the immunity subsides and ingested coccidia oocysts can proliferate in the animal's intestine. Add our 21-day pre-patent period to the initial 3-4 weeks of coverage and we can expect to see coccidiosis symptoms from around six weeks of age.
Be weary, this is the same time (geography depending) that we expect Nematodirus symptoms on farms. These symptoms are similar to coccidiosis infection and the same products do not treat both. If in doubt, take a faecal sample.
Calves
In calves it is less straightforward. The 'coverage' that calves recieve via colostrum is insufficient to prevent coccidia from proliferating in the gut. Hence, we can expect to see coccidiosis as early as 3-4 weeks of age, though timing of initial symptoms are farm-dependent.
How do we avoid this? By maximising hygine in the calving pens and subsequent rearing pen and preventing the animals from experiencing a high burden of oosysts in its environment.
- Bedding pens deep and keeping bedding dry.
- Clipping cows' tails and keeping them clean at calving.
- Raising drinkers off the ground.
- Using the proper disinfectants in calving and rearing pens - chorocresol/amine-based.
- Not mixing young calves with older calves.
- Drench full group one week in advance of symptoms based on history or as soon as thrive drops/first case of cocci occurs.
- Chopping long fibre to muzzle width and mixing through calf ration.
- Moving troughs outside rearing pens.
- Designate clothing, gloves and wellies for calf house that never leave.
Coccidiosis lives very successfully in grass pastures too. One way of reducing this burden is to alternate between sheep and cattle on pastures. As coccidia are species-specific, any cattle coccidia ingested by the sheep will not reproduce or have any negative effect on the sheep.
A word of caution - the above is not advisable on high liver fluke-risk pastures.