17February 2009 CUMBRIA FARMER
New technologies
bring in the cash
Cases of liver fluke
on the up in county
BY REBECCA MEARNS
Veterinary Laboratories Agency
I
n the past month, we have had
more than the typical number
of cases of disease caused by
the liver fluke, fasciola hep-
atica.
It is usual to see cases of chronic
disease due to fluke in sheep at this
time of year. Chronic disease is
caused by mature fluke in the bile
ducts damaging the liver, causing
inflammation and affecting liver
function. This leads to increased
nutritional demands and affected
sheep and cattle lose weight.
We also saw cases of acute disease
caused by liver fluke in December
and January, which is unusual.
The liver fluke requires a small
semi-aquatic snail as the intermedi-
ate host. Areas of wet land, with
reedy grazing and stagnant water are
obvious habitats and are associated
with an increased risk of infection.
Livestock are usually moved off
wet pastures during the winter to
prevent poaching and provide better
nutrition. However, with two con-
secutive wet summers, much of the
land is water logged and many
farms do not have any pasture that
is free from the risk of disease.
Liver fluke is endemic in this
area, and the wet summers of the
past two years have led to an
increase in cases of both acute and
chronic disease, predominantly in
sheep.
However, despite the forecasts
predicting increased risk and there-
fore the need to treat sheep more
frequently with flukicides, we have
still seen an increase in cases.
Most of the flocks where fluke has
been diagnosed this year had used
routine flukicide treatments.
The increased cases may reflect
the heavy pasture burden and the
need for more frequent treatment,
particularly where moving sheep to
better pasture is not possible.
Inappropriate flukicides may have
been used, for example a drug effec-
tive only against mature fluke at a
time when a drug to fight all ages of
fluke was needed.
It may also be an indication of
resistance to the commonly used flu-
kicides. The VLA has an ongoing
collaboration with the Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine,
Queen's University Belfast, DARD-
NI and University College Dublin to
evaluate a test to detect resistance
to the drug triclabendazole.
This is a faecal fluke egg count
reduction test, similar to tests used
to demonstrate resistance of worms
to white (benzimidazole) and yellow
(levamisole) drenches in sheep.
The test is only for use in sheep
where chronic fasciolosis has been
confirmed. It requires two visits
from VLA staff to complete a simple
questionnaire and collect faecal sam-
ples from a proportion of the flock.
The first visit must take place
before the sheep are treated.
We want to recruit more farms in
this area. The testing is carried out
free of charge. If any farmers are
interested in taking part they
should contact their vet in the first
instance and submit a pooled faecal
sample from 10 ewes to check for the
presence of fluke eggs.
BY MICHELLE WIGGINS,
Cumbria FWAG
WITH the UK officially in
recession and with fuel, fertilis-
er and energy costs rising,
improving resource and energy
efficiency on your farm and
investing in new technologies
is becoming a more important
and increasingly viable option.
For example, the Energy Sav-
ings Trust (EST 2006) estimates
that by 2050, up to 40 per cent of
the UK's electricity generation
could be produced by small and
microgeneration technologies.
This is a large market which
farms could be well placed to
access with opportunities to
sell surplus energy and gener-
ate additional income.
Matching the appropriate
technology with the resources
available on the farm is vital to
ensure the right equipment is
installed.
James Turner, farm manager
at Brackenburgh Estate and
Cumbria FWAG committee
chairman, has already started
to implement resource efficien-
cy measures on the estate.
One area is precision fertilis-
er applications. As a result of
detailed field and soil analysis,
he has been able to adopt vari-
able rate fertiliser spreading
practice.
By identifying field areas that
are high or low in nutrients, the
balance of fertiliser required
can be accurately applied. Not
only does it save fertiliser, but it
avoids over-application, which
can lead to nutrients washing
away and causing pollution of
watercourses.
James has also installed a
grain stirring system with a
corn dryer, which allows three
times the normal volume of
corn to be dried using the same
amount of heat.
All the main tractors used on
the estate have fuel economy
devices, resulting in fuel sav-
ings of 15 per cent.
James has altered the slurry
application to an injection sys-
tem rather than a surface
spreader, which reduces the
extent of volatilisation that can
otherwise lead to ammonia
(and valuable nitrogen) being
lost to the atmosphere.
Rainwater harvesting will
save �5,000 over five years.
James is also looking at buy-
ing a heat recovery system on
the milk cooling equipment.
The heat generated will be used
to warm water for the washing
down.
A Resource Efficiency Event
will be held on Wednesday,
February 18 at the Rural Enter-
prise Centre, Redhill, Penrith
to help farmers find ways to
save resources.
Environment/Health
Lower risk: Livestock are usually moved off wet pastures in the winter
Book your FREE place at
Farm Resource Efficiency 2009
Wednesday 18th February 10.30am - 3.30pm
CREA, Rural Enterprise Centre, Redhills, Penrith
Join us at this unmissable event and discover new ways
to `SAVE & PROFIT' from your farm's resources.
For more information or to book, simply call us now on
01768 868104
or email cumbria@fwag.org.uk
A better environment for business
This event has been funded through Defra and organised by FWAG on behalf of
Natural England
Cororate sponsorship has been generously provided by Carrs Fertilisers.

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