Be prepared for preventing blowfly strike
Early prevention of blowfly strike is essential to taking control and reducing health and welfare losses. Be prepared by receiving Blowfly Watch Alerts and checking the Blowfly Risk Forecast and prevent blowfly strike in your flock.
Blowfly Watch Alerts
Our Blowfly Watch email alerts provide sheep farmers with timely, targeted insights into the level of blowfly risk in the farm's area, so you can prevent blowfly strike in your sheep with early preventative treatment.
Blowfly Risk Forecast
Developed in conjunction with NADIS, the blowfly risk forecast uses Met Office weather data to predict the emergence of blowflies and therefore the level of risk relating to the number of animals which might be affected by blowfly strike within 40km2 grids across the UK.
Level of national risk of blowfly strike:
Current risk: High
Strike risk is still high throughout the UK as a result of both the blowfly population being at its seasonal maximum at the end of the summer and due to the recent rain increasing humidity. The risk is further elevated by regrowth of ewe fleeces and because some of the strike prevention products that were applied early in the year will now be approaching the end of their period of residual protection. As a result, considerable care is required to manage strike as we progress through autumn.
Be prepared: It is crucial to plan to protect animals against flystrike.
Check the number of strikes reported with our Blowfly Tracker.
Strike first against blowfly
Sources and acknowledgements
The model used to generate these predictions uses Met Office recordings of daily temperatures and rainfall, along with a detailed understanding of fly biology and sheep susceptibility to strike, to forecast the patterns of strike incidence. The model is highly accurate and tests have shown that it can effectively explain patterns of strike in sheep flocks1,2.
The risk level relates to the number of affected sheep expected collectively for all flocks in a region – and the expectation is that most of these sheep would be treated. If sheep were all untreated, incidences would be about 10x higher than the predictions. Each predicted strike level relates to the period from one update to the next.
Risk data provided by Professor Richard Wall BSc, MBA, PhD from the University of Bristol.
- Wall et al, 2000, Sheep blowfly strike: a model approach. Res Vet Sci, 69, 1-9.
- Wall et al, 2002, Development and validation of a simulation model for sheep blowfly strike. Med Vet Entomol., 16, 335-346
