When to use Zolvix in your sheep worm control strategy
As one of the newer wormer groups, Zolvix, the orange group 4-AD wormer, should be used in every flock, every year for two specific purposes:
- Quarantine treatment for all incoming and returning stock: following the right protocol is as important as using the right product.
- A mid to late season dose for all lambs present at that time (finishing, replacements and stores) in the latter part of your farm's grazing season when a worming treatment is needed - the Break Dose.
Using Zolvix as a quarantine dose
Use Zolvix as a farm protection quarantine dose for any stock moving on to the farm. All sheep coming on to the farm are a risk and should be yarded and treated on arrival. This includes both incoming stock and stock coming back on to the farm from a different holding.
There are five elements to quarantine treatments:
- Yard or house animals on arrival to stop them dropping any worm eggs on pasture.
- Choose at least one of the newest groups of wormer to treat - eg Zolvix (4-AD).
- Weigh sheep, calibrate equipment and make sure sheep are drenched correctly. A scab treatment can also be used at this time.
- Continue to hold off from pasture for 24-48 hours to allow the treatment to work.
- Turn out on to dirty pasture – pasture that has carried sheep this season. In addition, a treatment for scab is also advised and SCOPS advises two wormers to be used. For instance if using Dectomax™ for scab control this would also act as a second wormer dose in conjunction with Zolvix.
Neil explains the benefits he's found by using Zolvix in his worming strategy for both a quarantine dose and a mid-late season break dose:
“Having an effective worming programme helps us ensure our lambs continue to grow and meet their target weights, as quickly and efficiently as possible. We’re doing all we can to slow down resistance to all wormer groups, by only drenching when required, breaking the resistance cycle by adding Zolvix into our strategy, and undertaking post-drench efficacy tests to monitor wormer performance. By using Zolvix, our lambs are hitting their target weights quicker and spending less time on-farm, due to them gaining weight more efficiently, making our production costs lower.”
Using Zolvix as a mid-late season break dose
Use Zolvix as a 'break dose' in the mid-late season on your farm sometime after weaning. Timing will vary on individual farms. By the latter part of the grazing season, most lambs will have received wormer treatments involving one or more of the group 1, 2 or 3 products. Any worms resistant to these groups will have survived these treatments and, because they can live inside a sheep for months, they accumulate over the season. This population of worms in the lambs is therefore made up of a higher proportion of anthelmintic resistant worms than the population in refugia when the levels of resistance are low.
Treatment with an effective product, such as Zolvix, will remove these worms and stop them from producing a new generation of resistant worms for the following season. The worm eggs laid later in the season are the ones that overwinter to produce next year’s worms. To get best results, Zolvix should be incorporated into a worm control programme when the level of resistant worms is low1.
Gregor explains how incorporating Zolvix™ into his worm control strategy has managed worm burdens so effectively that his lambs achieve the target growth rates:
“Executing an effective worming programme is vital for us, as it allows us to protect investment already made in our flock, while protecting stock due to be sold the following year. To clear worm burdens around September time, we’ve opted to use an annual late season break dose using Zolvix as part of our worming protocol. It gives us the result that we need to get – which is getting stock thriving and growing again.”
