Resistance to Wormers continues to increase


Despite the availability of a wide range of modern, safe and relatively cheap worming drugs, parasitic worms still remain a major disease threat.

The idea of these chemicals is to kill the egg laying adult worm and thereby minimise pasture contamination.  In many instances they have been used intensively and often exclusively, without paying attention to sensible pasture management and stocking levels.

Unfortunately the regular use of any chemical to kill an infective organism almost inevitably leads to the development of drug resistance. 

You will be familiar with some resistance to antibiotics (e.g. MRSA). The following advice is designed to REDUCE the use of wormers and SLOW resistance and also may save you money! Called:-

Targeted Strategic Worming

Practice good pasture hygine

•  Pick up faeces twice weekly in the summer and once a week in the winter as a minimum
• Sensible stocking density and if possible rest pastures
• Do not graze foals on the same pasture each year and ensure good stable hygiene
• Graze sheep to ‘clean’ the pasture, either with or after the horses
• NEW HORSES
• Keep all new horses on separate grazing while you test
• Treat all those that test positive
• Re-test 2 weeks later before exposing them to the main herd in order to look forresistance and prevent further contamination of the main grazing pastures.