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Sheep producers are being urged to participate in a national survey that could change the way the industry manages parasites such as worms, flies and lice. A survey of this type has not been performed since 2011 and sheep producers now have the opportunity to influence the future of parasite management, research and extension.
Led by a team of researchers from the University of New England the AWI-funded survey will assess the parasite control measures of sheep producers across Australia, focusing on worm, liver fluke, blowfly and lice control.
AWI General Manager for Research Dr Jane Littlejohn highlighted the survey results will enable industry to identify the important parasitemanagement issues impacting sheep producers.
“The results will also be used to update regional benchmarks for parasite control,” Dr Jane Littlejohn explained.
“The resulting benchmarks will be available to sheep producers to then compare their management practices and, if necessary, make changes to their enterprises.”
Internal and externalparasites combined comprise the major disease problem of Australian sheep costing the industry an estimated $715M per year including $495M in lost production and $220M in costs of control (Lane 2015).
Queensland sheep producer and veterinarian Noel O’Dempsey - who runs fine wool sheep and prime lambs at ‘Linallie’ in the Traprock country between Texas and Inglewood - is on the Steering Committee for the project and encourages all sheep producers to complete the survey.
“This is an important survey for producers and I encourage them to take the time to complete the survey as accurately as possible,” he said.
“The results of the survey will not only allow industry to benchmark current parasite control strategies and identifywhat changes have occurred since the previous survey, it will ultimately enable producers to refine their on-farm parasite control, be it for worms, flies or lice.”
All sheep producers are invited to participate in the survey which opens on Tuesday February 5.
For more information go to www.wool.com/paraboss
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