Liver flukes have been around for a long time, but researchers and veterinarians are still learning new things about them. They've also spread from the coastal areas to most of the United States, so management and prevention are good topics for all cattlemen.
Editor Shauna Hermel sat down with Jody Wade, senior veterinary consultant at Boehringer Ingelheim, to discuss:
Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.
Liver flukes have been around for a long time, but researchers and veterinarians are still learning new things about them. They've also spread from the coastal areas to most of the United States, so management and prevention are good topics for all cattlemen.
Editor Shauna Hermel sat down with Jody Wade, senior veterinary consultant at Boehringer Ingelheim, to discuss:
Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.
Hello and welcome to Angus at Work. I'm Kasey Brown. Today's topic is not glamorous, but it does affect more areas of the country now than it has in the past. So it is an important one to discuss. Liver flukes used to be a coastal issue, but that's just not the case anymore. They haven't been found in all 50 states, but they are pretty darn close. Today's host, Shauna Hermel, sat down with Jody Wade, a technical veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim. He explained that with the way we ship cattle now liver flukes in other areas of the country are bound to happen. He calls them a biological time bomb. They discuss how to prevent them from affecting your operation in the long term. So let's dig in.
Jody Wade:
Liver flukes are probably one of the most incredible life cycles that I guess you could ever deal with as a veterinarian because they have to go through an intermediate host. So you have to have a snail involved to be able to transmit that fluke and get it through its life cycle. They go through multiple steps. The other big thing is the environment. You've got to have those moist wetlands basically for that snail to thrive in, and you have to have that moisture also for the Miracidia to be able to swim once those snails pass them out so that they can swim to the grass blades and actually stage themselves for cattle to pick up. So there's a lot of things that have to happen for this thing to go through the process, but it happens and that's what's amazing. It's a miracle. I mean, it really is.
Shauna Hermel:
So can you describe that life cycle of the Miracidia?
Jody Wade:
Yeah. What happens basically is as cattle that have been infected with the flute before, as they pass those eggs out on onto the pasture, those eggs, once they get into this to this moist area, they will make their way into that intermediate host, which is the snail. So once they get into that snail, then they go through this whole big conglomeration of changes again. And then once those snails pass that Miracidia out, hatch it out just like the cattle did the eggs, then that Miracidia has to actually swim over and actually get into the grass blades so that as these cattle are grazing in those more wetlands picking up that particular pathogen. So it takes some time for it to happen, but the good part is there's drugs out there now where we can control part of that life cycle now and keep it from becoming effective.
Shauna Hermel:
You bet. Now, a lot of times we consider this kind of that Southern Gulf state stocker operation problem.
Jody Wade:
You bet.
Shauna Hermel:
But we're seeing it more in cow-calf.
Jody Wade:
Luckily we have got the blessing, I guess, from some of the drug companies like Boehringer Ingelheim to start doing some surveillance. So we are doing fecal diagnostics now and sending it to some of the veterinary schools to actually look for the liver fluke eggs. And we're actually finding them and we're finding them in places that you just couldn't imagine that they're there. Kansas, for example, we found some of the fluke eggs in Kansas just recently in three or four different locations. So we know that it's moving to different areas now. It's just doing the diagnostics and the surveillance to be able to find them.
Shauna Hermel:
Symptoms of a cow-calf herd that might be infected. How might people first see a problem?
Jody Wade:
That's the trouble, you may not ever see it so subclinical. As it manifests itself, the disease itself into cattle, usually when we know that we've got a real liver fluke problem is when these cattle end up on a kill floor on the slaughter floor, and we've got all kinds of livers that are being condemned just due to the prevalence of all the liver flukes that are there.
Shauna Hermel:
So now if the liver flukes are investing the cattle in the feed lot, then they are also causing performance issues?
Jody Wade:
Oh, you bet. We think cause a lot of performance issues, we've never been able to really get a number with that now. It varies from place to place, but the biggest issue is it's a disease that we just assume was going to stay down in those Gulf Coast states where we had those wetlands all the time, and now we're not. Now we're seeing it manifest itself in places that it's never been before.
Shauna Hermel:
Okay. So how does a producer go about getting on a program to, can you ever get rid of liver flukes once you have them on your place?
Jody Wade:
Management plays a big role. It really does. And grazing cattle in those wet areas certain times of the year is probably one of the biggest management things that you could fix or try to change. It's amazing to me, and I'll use Florida as an example, I've gone to some of those big ranches down there in certain times of the year, and you'll see those yearlings standing out there in ankle-deep water and they're grazing in grass that's knee-high, but it's very wet and that's just the prime conditions for cattle to be picking them up. We used to think that you didn't see it in young cattle, that it was mainly older cattle that it affected. What's amazing now we're seeing it in cattle less than nine months of age. And it blows my mind. It really does. We used to say as a whole, if you're going to do diagnostic testing, looking for the fluke eggs, looking for that on the fluke finder, don't do anything less than nine months of age. Now we have to change and go back and punt because that's not true. We're finding it in cattle less than nine months of age.
Shauna Hermel:
What contributes to that?
Jody Wade:
I think grazing in those areas, just like the moms do, they're picking them up at an earlier age and it's something that we just didn't know that they were doing before. We're learning a lot about this disease that that's changing. I mean, it really is. It's an old disease that's been around for a long time, but it's a never ending cycle that we're beginning to learn about it, you know?
Shauna Hermel:
You Bet. Then on top of management, what type of a protocol do you use?
Jody Wade:
The biggest thing right now is we do have drugs that can treat the liver flukes as they go through. The frustration a lot of times is most of the drugs that we use, they combat the adult stages of the liver fluke. And a lot of that damage is done by the juvenile stages as they migrate and go through the bile ducts trying to get out to the tissues. So a lot of that damage is done before we ever get treatment done, unfortunately.
Shauna Hermel:
Can you vaccinate?
Jody Wade:
Not yet. No ma'am. Something that some of the companies are looking at, is there a vaccine that maybe we can try to come up with? There's been a lot of people that's put that in the research wheel so far, but nothing's fell out.
Shauna Hermel:
So it's management to stop the life cycle, basically.
Jody Wade:
Stop the life cycle. And like I said, there's a lot of things that have to play a role to get there. If we're in an area where we're not seeing those snail populations there to be the intermediate host, that's a blessing. 'Cause we know that they can't go any further without the snail. So that's one thing. The other thing is do they have that moisture? Because they don't do very well in dry areas. So if we get droughty conditions or things like that, they don't do too well in that and they die pretty quick.
Shauna Hermel:
Well, that's good to have a benefit from drought, right?
Jody Wade:
Well, yeah, unfortunately.
Shauna Hermel:
Yes. Silver lining maybe. All right. As you have an infestation, is it one like a perennial weed versus an annual weed? Is it something that you can, if you get ahold of that life cycle and break it, can you stop it with one treatment?
Jody Wade:
Yeah. It is something that you can definitely slow down, there's no doubt about that. But if those cattle are exposed later, okay, in a wet condition where they can pick them up, even the more adult cattle, yes, they can pick it up again and go through that same life cycle all over again.
Shauna Hermel:
So it's continual, once it's present it's continual-
Jody Wade:
It's a continual deal, it is.
Shauna Hermel:
... Effort to try and control.
Jody Wade:
It is. It's continual. So it's year to year. I mean, it really is. So management year to year is going to play a big role in how this thing progresses.
Shauna Hermel:
So is there a difference in how you approach lever flukes, whether you're stocker operation versus a cow calf operation?
Jody Wade:
That's a good question, and one thing that we have looked at is, especially in the cow-calf operations, if we can get ahead of it on the cow-calf operations, keep those young animals from picking that, picking it up before they're transferred or moved to some of these stocker operations, even if they're going to pasture or dry lotted and fed, whatever, if we can stop it on the cow-calf operation, then we feel like we're way ahead in that intermediate stage. You bet.
Shauna Hermel:
So is there any way for a stocker operator, a backgrounder or a feed lot that's buying calves to test those calves prior to buying?
Jody Wade:
Well, the FLUKEFINDER has played a role, but in what we've done in some of these stocker operations, especially on what we would consider high risk cattle for the liver fluke, we do those fecals there and you can just get a snapshot in time. You don't have to do every animal, but if some of them are exposed, then probably most of them have been exposed. But the FLUKEFINDER is very good about being able to diagnostically, find those liver flukes at an early age, and that helps.
Shauna Hermel:
Excellent. Excellent. So to kind of cap things off, your biggest advice to cos/calf operation, if we want to try and nip it in the bud, so to speak?
Jody Wade:
My biggest recap would be is try to control their environment as much as possible. I know that's hard sometimes, but if you've got grass that's knee-deep that they're grazing on and ankle deep water, that's prime conditions for the intermediate host and for the liver fluke to go through that life cycle. So that would be the one of the first things I would try to control.
The other thing, if you know that you're going to have it, you're in an endemic area, make sure that we use products during the processing that we can try to combat that liver fluke with. Even though we're just getting some of the adult stages or the adult stages and not getting those juvenile stages, we're still way ahead of the game and we can slow down some of that devastation that you see to the liver.
Shauna Hermel:
And what types of products do work on liver flukes?
Jody Wade:
Well, clorsulon is probably one of the better products that's out there for liver flukes. It does a phenomenal job and you see a lot of clorsulon combinations. Boehringer Ingelheim has what they call IVOMEC plus, so it has Ivermectin plus the clorsulon in there as well. But there's multiple companies that manufacture that same product, but it does have clorsulon in it. The other thing would be just straight clorsulon, if you can find straight clorsulon itself does a phenomenal job.
Shauna Hermel:
Do you have a general price point for treatment per animal that people might be looking at?
Jody Wade:
Surprisingly, not that bad expensive. I mean, there's not a huge cost to adding the clorsulon to some of the ivermectin type products, so it really doesn't increase the cost a whole lot of de-worming, those animals with that clorsulon addition.
Shauna Hermel:
And I would assume if you all had a calculation of that cost benefit?
Jody Wade:
It pays a huge dividend. Yeah, the ROI on it is very, very good, especially if you're in a liver fluke area.
Shauna Hermel:
I suppose some of the ways that people could bring it onto their ranch would be purchase cattle?
Jody Wade:
You bet purchase cattle from the Gulf Coast States was one of the biggest ones we used to bring up all the time and bringing those cattle up to your area and then they shed those liver fluke eggs out on those pastures there. And as long as environmental conditions are good, that life cycle can continue. So-
Shauna Hermel:
How long will they shed if you buy an animal that's infested, how long will those cattle shed when they get to a new area?
Jody Wade:
I don't know. I couldn't answer that question. I do know they do shed those eggs that are positive. But I don't know how long it could be, and I think it may vary animal to animal and how long they could be carriers of that particular parasite.
Shauna Hermel:
Okay. Excellent.
Kasey Brown:
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