Warning that risk of liver fluke remains high after wet summer

Yet another legacy of 2017’s wet summer has been inflicting its pain on Scotland’s farming industry, the country’s official animal disease warning service revealed yesterday.

The National Animal Disease Information Service (NADIS) has said that the wet summer has resulted in the majority of the country being rated as “high risk” for liver fluke disease which can exhibit itself in sheep flocks and cattle herds over the winter.

Record rainfall in some areas and higher than average rainfall from May to October means that north, west and central Scotland have seen the dangers associated with high risk status reflected in greater numbers of outbreaks being confirmed by official disease surveillance centres around the country.

The organisation said that while only a few decades ago the disease – which requires water snails to act as intermediate hosts in a complicated life cycle – had been confined to the wetter west of the country, even in the east of Scotland where the risk had been graded “medium”, localised variations had resulted in a number of outbreaks.

The latest advice says farmers must seek advice about the local situation and determine what test are needed.

Reports had also been made of considerable rates of re-infection in animals treated in September. NADIS emphasised the importance of using the correct product at the correct time to stop carryover of immature fluke.