By Ulf Kintzel

Internal parasites are often very poorly man-aged, may it be by wrong pasture managementor by using wrong dewormers or de-worming atthe wrong time. In fact, in my opinion internalparasites are the killer #1 in most flocks that Ihave seen. Internal parasites can becomeoverwhelming and hard to manage in someyears, especially when it is wet.

BARBER POLE WORMThe Barber Pole Worm (Haemonchus contor-tus) is in my opinion the single most dangerousworm that can kill sheep and lambs at a highrate. It is mainly but not exclusively a problemin the middle of the summer. This worm sits inthe true stomach (the abomasums) by the hun-dreds and thousands and sucks lots of blood.This leads to anemia, significant loss of weight,damage to the stomach and often to death inboth adults and lambs.

Anemia and sometimes a bottle jaw (swellingunder the lower jaw) are the clear symptoms ofan infestation with barber pole worms. Whenyou open up a sheep that died because of it,you are likely to find significant holes in theforth or true stomach.

Rotate pastures. First step in controlling thisand most other internal parasites is pasturemanagement. Rotational grazing means a lotless parasite pressure than set stock grazing.Leaving residue of about 3 to 4 inches is onegood practice but does not work quite as wellfor sheep as it does for cattle.

Due to the sheep's pointy mouth it is able toeat extremely selectively. That means that aflock of sheep can eat a patch of tasty forage,i.e. White Clover, down to the ground withinhours and will leave other species of foragealone until the tastiest legumes or grasses arecompletely gone.

Leaving your own pasture for at least threeweeks and grazing the sheep on some rentedland helps to break the three-week cycle of theworms. If you have a neighboring farmer whocan seed down some cereal rye in August at 3bushels per acre you are likely to be able tograze the rye twice before winter. Harvestedhayfields may be another option. If this is notpossible you should attempt a rotational sched-ule of no less than three weeks on your ownland.

Selecting for resistance. Selecting sheep thatare more resistant to internal parasites isanother great tool. This is done by eliminatingthose sheep that show clinical signs of worminfestation again after de-worming took place.One needs to be ruthless to do that since youwill find that you will have to cull sheep that areotherwise very productive. Get rid of them any-way! It pays in the long run.

Dewormers. Selecting the right dewormer isalso very important. The Barber Pole Worm isvery often immune to all "white" dewormers(i.e. Safe-Guard, Panacure, Valbazen).Furthermore, it builds quickly resistanceagainst Ivermectin/Ivomec. The reason for fastimmunity to the very common dewormerIvomec is the fact that, to simplify it, immuneworms when mating with susceptible wormscreate immune worms.

On the other hand, Levasole or Levamisole(Prohibit) is still very effective because, simplysaid, an immune worm when mating with asusceptible worm creates again susceptibleworms.

Another very effective but very expensivedewormer against Barber Pole Worm isCydectin. It is fairly new on the US Americanmarket but has been used for years inEuropean countries like Germany. Now there issome worm resistance against Cydectin aswell. Since I expect the same resistance todevelop over time here in the US I use it veryrarely.

TAPEWORMThe second worm to be concerned about is thetapeworm. Adult sheep are immune to thetapeworm and those who aren't quite yet adultare not much bothered by it. But in lambs thetapeworm can cause significant loss of weightand at times also death.

The segments of an adult tapeworm are clearlyvisible in the manure. It is extremely easy toanalyze whether or not lambs are infected. Thetapeworm does not respond to any of the"clear" dewormers (Ivomec, Levamisole,Cydectin). The most price effective dewormeravailable that kills tapeworms is Valbazen.

Use dewormers only as needed. With fewexceptions there should be no regular schedulefor deworming. Anyone who still recommendsdeworming every six weeks is wrong. It shouldbe mostly done on a need to do basis. I like to

deworm my ewes with Cydectin or Prohibit atlambing in the spring. This way the worm pres-sure on the pasture is reduced when it mattersthe most and when the ewes are the leastcapable to build immunity.

I also like to deworm the ewes again in the latefall/early winter when the grass stops growingand it gets cold, or when I leave my farm andgraze the sheep on neighbors' fields. This way Iget my ewes "clean" and the chance that theyget re-infected right away is very low. I put"clean" in quotation marks since there is nosuch thing as getting sheep actually parasite-free.

The lambs get dewormed for the first timewhen they are about six weeks old. That iswhen they need it the most. I use Levasole or,if tapeworms are present, a Levasole/Valbazenmixture. Usually, the ewes do not getdewormed at that time.

In a dry year I try to wait it out and don't do anyfurther deworming until the fall. Or I justdeworm the ones that seem to be infected. In awet year the worm pressure may become sohigh that both ewes and lambs need to betreated again during the summer. Most often, Iuse Levasole.

Wait and watch. As long as you are capable ofseeing the first signs of an infestation there isno need to take immediate action. I always waita while. This way I kill two birds with one stone.There will be more adult worms to be killedand the immune systems of the sheep aremore challenged and thus the sheep are morelikely to build resistance. On the other hand,waiting too long will lead to losses or mayaffect the sheep's growth. It is a balancing act.

The means to deworm my sheep are my chute,my dog and my drenching gun. The dog movesthe sheep from a holding pen into the chuteand makes them move up so that there is littleto no space in between any two sheep. A sec-ond person can replace the dog. When thechute is full I close it and I walk through thechute from the front to the rear and deworm asI walk through.

It is important that the chute is narrow enoughthat no sheep can turn around. Then I emptythe chute by opening the front and letting thesheep go into another holding pen, followed byrefilling the chute.

COCCIDIOSISA third problem can be coccidiosis. This oftenoccurs in the months of July and August. I putDi-Methox or the like in drinking water. It wasrecommended to me to add some Jell-O pow-der to reduce the bitter taste of it. The treat-ment has to be done for five consecutive days.Coccidiosis often causes diarrhea and thusdehydrates the affected lambs and sheep. Thebeauty is they are the ones who are more likelyto drink the bitter brew because of the dehydra-tion the diarrhea causes.

In summary, none of the above describedmethods alone is the secret to successful inter-nal parasite management. A mixture of propertreatment, rotational grazing and selecting forparasite resistance is in my opinion the key toreducing these parasites to an acceptablelevel.

Ulf Kintzel owns and manages White CloverSheep Farm (www.whitecloversheepfarm.com)in Rushville, NY and breeds White DorperSheep.

Page 16 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY April 7, 2008

NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCK

Internal Parasite ManagementIn Sheep

Author Ulf Kintzel de-worming his sheep in his self-made chute. Photo by Ulf Kintzel

By Jean Burr

More than once I have attended an agricul-tural meeting where small farmers voicedhow hard it was to sell farm products to localpeople. These farmers are generally notreliant on their products as their main liveli-hoods, but are trying to grow and sell as asideline. They complained that local peopledrive long distances to buy cheaper productsin a big store rather than buy eggs from theneighbor. The benefits of locally grown pro-duce and locally raised meats are eitherunknown to them, or not as important asprice.

What raised my hackles was the reoccurringconsensus that "Something must be done!"

I suppose this wouldn't bother me as much ifthese farmers were simply lamenting. Whatreally irks me is that "something must bedone" implies someone else should do it. Nosolutions were suggested, no positive strate-gies to improve education through farm toursor outreach to the local elementary schoolwere provided. The very people who are bestsituated to address this problem apparentlythink someone else will do something, andthey don't have to be involved.

But who better to inform and educate anignorant public than the small farmer? Thesefarmers have chosen to work the land, pas-ture the animals, and grow a quality productthat they enjoy and want to share with oth-ers, for a price. To make the investment inanimals or vegetable crops takes commit-ment, and knowledge of the benefits of local-ly grown products. Therefore, the smallfarmer is in a perfect position to provideinformation to the local community.

In some areas, farmers are already spear-heading public outreach efforts. I know of twosmall farmers who hold open houses, anduse that time to educate the interested publicon their farm. One farm has been doing thisfor many years, and has quite a number ofpeople coming and seeing many differentanimals and farming practices, along witheducational explanations. The other farm hasheld two open houses, and takes visitors ona tour of the farm. Both farms started theseopen houses on their own, without prompt-ing, because they saw a need.

The "something that must be done' is thatthe small farmer must look for his or her ownsolution, and not expect anyone else to

come to the rescue. Educateyour neighbor, and be proac-tive. The time waiting forsomeone else to do some-thing is opportunity lost.

Jean Burr is a grazing spe-cialist with the Soil and WaterConservation District inOnondaga County. She maybe reached at 315-677-3851or jburr@ocswcd.org.

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