UK farmers warned to monitor worm burdens following record peaks in 2022

Now in its eighth year monitoring worm egg counts through a network of 26 sentinel farms across the country, the Zoetis Parasite Watch Scheme has found last year’s counts to be the highest to date. Average worm egg counts peaked at over 950 eggs per gram (epg) in September, with levels above 250 epg seen from the end of April until the end of recording in November. Sheep farmer Peter Baber from Weir Park Farm in Exeter, Devon, one of the farms involved in the scheme, believes the higher than average egg counts last year may have been the result of grazing pressures due to a shortage of grass and nutritional stress. “We did more drenching than we thought we would have to do, in such dry conditions, which we found surprising,” he remarked. “Because we were so severely affected by the drought, we think sheep were grazing very tight and picking up the worms. Because of the nutritional pressures, it perhaps compromised their ability to mount an immune response to control the worms,” he ...