Surge in facial eczema spore counts
Taranaki and Waikato farmers could be facing a significant facial eczema season as spore counts soar to dangerous levels.
The most recent monitoring carried out by vets shows 35 of 51 sites had counts above 20,000, the point at which animals are at risk.
In central and south Waikato, spore counts collected by AsureQuality have regularly been between 150,000-250,000.
In Taranaki, 15 sites had counts above 100,000, with 310,000 recorded at Motunui, north of New Plymouth, and 240,000 at Lower Carrington Rd.
However, Taranaki Veterinary Centre chief executive Stephen Hopkinson said farmers should be wary of basing their decisions on the spore counts provided by vets.
‘‘Don’t listen to others, buy a microscope and take your own counts on your farm,’’ he told farmers at a recent seminar.
‘‘When spore counts are rising, start your zinc dosing. When spore counts are falling, stop your dosing.’’
Caused by toxic spores from a fungus which grows in the dead litter at the base of pasture in warm, moist conditions, facial eczema is estimated to cost the country $200 million annually.
There is no cure for the potentially fatal disease which can damage an animal’s liver and bile ducts, reduce fertility, and cause skin to redden, thicken and peel. FE also leads to a drop in milk production.
Preventative measures include monitoring spore counts, dosing animals with zinc and spraying pastures with a fungicide.
Farmers could monitor the effectiveness of zinc dosing with blood and water tests, Hopkinson said.
‘‘Testing the trough water and blood from some of your cows will tell you if there is enough zinc in that trough and in those cows to prevent facial eczema,’’ he said. ‘‘Keep monitoring spore counts, keep testing regularly and don’t stop zinc dosing too soon.’’
Breeding cows that are more tolerant to FE offers a long-term solution and was a logical step for North Taranaki farmer Gary Phillips. ‘‘We are highly prone to facial eczema here,’’ said Phillips, who, together with wife Melynda, runs an organic dairy farm at Urenui. They have 160 milking cows on a 60-hectare farm.
Until five or so years ago, they were badly affected by FE. About one in eight of their cows were developing the disease, which resulted in drying off stock early, and treating and sometimes culling affected cattle.
‘‘As a farmer, it’s very hard to deal with facial eczema in your animals. When one-third or onehalf of the herd gets facial eczema, it’s one of the most devastating things you ever can see,’’ Phillips said.
The Phillips have been using CRV Ambreed’s FE-tolerant genetics across their cows since 2012. Now, they have had three years of milking the progeny of sires with increased FE-tolerance, and also have heifers and calves coming through that have been bred from daughters of CRV’s FEtolerant bulls.
‘‘Everything seems to be working well,’’ Phillips said. ‘‘We no longer have to treat those cows – for our calves, we were drenching regularly before, but the last three years we haven’t had to do anything at all to the animals with increased tolerance.’’