Category: Large Animals

Count Your Faecal Parasite Worm Eggs Before They Hatch

Posted on by Les Ellison
Count Your Faecal Parasite Worm Eggs Before They Hatch

Counting parasite worm eggs in the faeces from your animals is easy and economical with Vetlab Bespoke FEC starter kits, that include flotation solutions, veterinary quality microscopes and everything you need to carry out Faecal Egg Counts.

Internal parasites of grazing animals spread from one animal to another by infective eggs shed with the faeces of an infected animal. Parasite eggs hatch into the grazing pasture where the active worms spread out and are eaten by grazing animals repeating the cycle of infection and increasing the ‘worm burden’ of all exposed animals.

Worm eggs, passed out in the faeces of infected animals, can lie dormant through the winter to reinfect grazing animals when they return to pasture in the spring. Heavy worm burdens reduce growth rate, cause a loss of weight, body condition and increase vulnerability to infection resulting in emaciation and even death.

What Is A Faecal Egg Count?

A faecal egg count or FEC is a measure of the number of parasite worm eggs in an animal’s faeces (droppings). Results, presented as the number of worm eggs per gram (epg) of faeces, gives an indication of the level of infection or ‘worm burden’ in an individual animal or for the entire herd.

The Faecal Egg Count is a useful, non-invasive method for estimating the individual worm burden of grazing animals including horses, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas. Owners of a small number of animals may be able to check every individual animal regularly, while larger herds or commercial farms may rely on representative sampling rather than each individual animal.

Why Are Regular Faecal Egg Counts Necessary?

Zero or medically insignificant Faecal Egg Counts will reassure keepers as to the internal health of their animals and to the hygiene and cleanliness of their pasture and stables. Confirming that no medical intervention is necessary will save on costs, and ensure that any veterinary treatment required is targeted where it will bring most benefit.

Medicating animals only when necessary prevents the overuse of drug treatments. In recent years, the ready availability of anti-worm medicines has led to a ‘treat first, test… maybe’ approach by some keepers. Overexposure to unnecessary medication has led to increasing drug resistance in parasitic worms and the growing risk of all available treatments becoming ineffective.

How Often Should An FEC Be Carried Out?

In the UK, Vettimes reports that FEC testing should be performed in all horses at 8-12 week intervals throughout the grazing period (spring to early autumn). Testing should also be carried out at the end of winter if horses have been grazed outdoors frequently or for longer periods.

Alpaca and llama specialists, The British Alpaca Society recommends advice from your veterinarian as permissible levels of FEC may depend on the age/condition of the animal and the type of worm. As a general rule, says BAS-UK, it is common to treat far lower egg counts in alpacas than might be considered in other animals.

For Sheep, the industry led Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) recommends regular FEC testing on a 2 to 4 weekly cycle throughout the grazing season. SCOPS recognises that collecting faecal samples from every animal in a commercial flock isn’t practical!

This SCOPS link tells you how best to get a reliable overview of the parasite burden in a large flock. Collecting fresh droppings from a representative number of animals for professional laboratory or DIY testing is suggested as a testing strategy.

Can I Carry Out Faecal Egg Counts On My Own Animals?

Collecting fresh faecal samples from your horses, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas is the first step in reliable DIY faecal egg counting. SCOPS recommends wearing gloves to collect faeces less than 1 hour old and washing hands thoroughly afterwards. For large flocks, sampling 10% of the animals is advised.

Samples can be sent to commercial veterinary laboratories for testing but, with a little practice and some basic laboratory equipment, owners and keepers can carry out their own DIY in-house FEC testing to support their vet in deciding if any further treatment is necessary.

What Laboratory Equipment And Supplies Do I Need for FEC Testing?

How much DIY faecal worm egg counting you choose to do yourself depends only on your level of self confidence, readiness to gain experience and access to the appropriate and readily available laboratory equipment and consumables.

The FEC process divides readily into four stages: recovery of appropriate faecal samples, parasite egg recovery, egg counting, and interpretation of results. Depending on those results, a fifth stage might involve any appropriate veterinary treatment and any necessary changes to pasturing, stabling and hygiene practice.

How Can I Start DIY Animal Faeces Sampling?

SCOPS recommends collecting a representative number of fresh (warm to the touch) faecal samples from your animals. Disposable gloves and hand cleanser are also recommended as the minimum level of protective hygiene. Everything you need to carry out your own hygienic sampling can be found on the Vetlab Supplies Laboratory Consumables pages

What Do I Need To Separate Parasite Eggs from Faeces?

Parasite eggs are less dense than the faecal material that contains them. Left for long enough, a dispersion of faeces in water would allow the eggs to float free of the faecal material. However, this process is too slow to be practical, so gravity needs a little help to speed things along.

Mixing the faeces with a solution that encourages the eggs to float and the faecal matter to sink is made easy with Vetlab Supplies Ready-Made and Bespoke Floatation Solutions.

How Do I Count The Number Of Worm Eggs In A Faeces Sample?

Counting worm eggs sounds like a difficult task. But with a few pieces of the right kit, and a little practice, keepers can become proficient at estimating the worm burden of their animals. This count will equip keepers with sufficient information to approach their vet for advice on the appropriate anti-worm treatment.

Parasite egg counting requires one of the easy to use and economically available microscopes as recommended by Vetlab Supplies. The Vetlab helpline can guide you through the process of selecting and obtaining a microscope appropriate to your need.

Counting parasite eggs is made easy by the use of the tried and tested McMaster Worm Egg Counting Slide. The McMaster Slide holds a fixed volume of the liquid from the faeces sample. The number of worm eggs in this volume of sample can be counted by viewing the slide under the microscope.

All of the equipment required is available to purchase individually or as part of a complete bespoke kit.

How Do I Know If My Animals Need Veterinary Treatment?

A simple maths formula, calculated from how much of the faecal sample was tested, how much flotation solution was added, and how many eggs were counted on the McMaster slide gives you and your vet a measure of the worm burden for the animal tested.

With this FEC knowledge, you will be able to discuss with your vet the best course of any required treatment and helping prevent the emergence of multi-resistant worm infections in your animals.

To find out more about our range of Bespoke Parasitology Starter kits and the Vetlab McMaster Worm Egg Counting Method visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or call Tel: 01798 874567

Simple Equine Tapeworm Testing: Straight From The Horses Mouth

Posted on by Les Ellison
Simple Equine Tapeworm Testing: Straight From The Horses Mouth

Regular testing for equine tapeworm in horses and donkeys with the Equisal Saliva Test and Bespoke FEC Kits can increase the effectiveness of anthelmintic treatments, reduce the risk of parasite resistance and promote the long-term health of your horses and donkeys.

Overtreatment Increases Parasite Resistance

Treatment with equine de-worming medicines, known as anthelmintics (AH), effectively controls the vast majority of intestinal parasitic worms (helminths). However, the ready availability of these same medicines has lead to their overuse as a quick and easy substitute for veterinary testing and livery stable hygiene.

Tolerance to AH drug treatments in parasitic worm populations ranges from ‘highly susceptible’ to ‘highly resistant’. Overexposure to AH treatment might kill the vast majority of parasites, but the more resistant worms – though initially fewer in number – may still survive and multiply.

Without competition from the more susceptible worms, the fewer highly resistant survivors thrive, breed and pass on their drug-resistance to the next generation. The outcome is that overmedication reduces the effectiveness of each AH treatment until no useful treatment option remains.

Stronger and Stronger Doses Are Not The Answer

Increasing anthelmintic resistance (AHR) means that even stronger doses of AH medicines are needed next treatment. Continued over-treatment with the same AH medicine again and again only strengthens the resistance of the surviving tapeworms.

Eventually, the treatment becomes ineffective or, worse still, only effective in a dose so strong as to risk a dangerously adverse reaction from the horse itself. Changing the drug of choice may only begin a further round of acquired resistance ending in yet another ineffective treatment.

Strategies To Avoid Acquired Drug Resistance

Constantly changing the AH regime means that the few survivors of one treatment are less likely to survive a second, different, treatment before further resistance develops. With twice-yearly laboratory testing and good stable hygiene, unnecessary and ineffective treatment can be avoided.

With no new anthelmintic treatment on the horizon, the future relies on changes in the behaviour of owners and keepers. New strategies to counter increasing drug resistance in digestive tract parasites include regular monitoring and treating medically only when necessary.

Testing before treating not only helps prevent the development of drug-resistant tapeworms, it reduces the cost of wasteful over-treatment. The British Horse Society recommends a planned timetable of spring and autumn testing with medication, only when justified by the test results.

Good Hygiene Is Key to Equine Health

The need to resort to new treatment strategies is, perhaps, an indication that previous parasite reduction regimes have not been effectively applied. A report by UK-VET EQUINE (2009), circulated by The Horse Trust identifies the key risk factors in the spread of AHR, including:

– Poor manure collection and cleaning regimes.
– Poor pasture and paddock management.
– Frequently changing and high density horse populations.
– Grazing of younger, more vulnerable horses with older animals.
– Lack of effective quarantine measures.

UK-VET EQUINE recommended a range of effective strategies to reduce these risk factors:

– Collection of faecal material at least twice weekly.
– Rest and rotation of pasture – especially on stud farms.
– An awareness that parasites can overwinter on pasture.
– An awareness that worm larvae can migrate into pasture from contaminated field edges.

Types of Equine Intestinal Worm Infections

Horses and donkeys are at risk of infection and reinfection from a range of intestinal parasitic worms collectively known as Helminths. These worms fall broadly into three groups classified by veterinary laboratories as flukes (trematodes), tapeworms (cestodes) and roundworms (nematodes).

Animal charity Blue Cross warns that animals kept in poor, overstocked or unhygienic conditions are vulnerable to serious illness caused by five subtypes of intestinal parasitic worm:

Large Redworms (strongyles). Living in the horse’s intestine, they cause a swollen abdomen, internal bleeding, colic, weight loss and diarrhoea.

Small Redworms (cyathostomins). Feed on the intestinal tissue, these worms burrow into the gut wall to lie dormant through winter months emerging in early spring to cause weight loss, loss of condition, distended abdomen, colic and diarrhoea.

Roundworms (ascarids). Growing up to 40cm long, roundworms exploit the immature immune systems of foals under four years to cause inflammation and obstruction resulting in poor growth, lethargy, coughing, weight loss, loss of condition, distension and colic.

Tapeworms (anoplocephela). Tapeworms attach to the gut wall at the junction of the small intestine and large intestine causing impaction, colic, weight loss and even physical damage.
Tapeworm infestation is a particular problem for horse and donkey keepers because tapeworm eggs are too small for detection by routine centrifugation and McMaster slide FEC methodology.

Assessing The Worm Burden: Faecal Egg Counting

Equipped with a veterinary microscope, flotation solutions and a McMaster counting slide , the tell-tale eggs of most intestinal worms can be separated from horse faecal material. Faecal egg counts can accurately estimate the degree of any worm burden.

The tale-tale eggs of equine tapeworm are too small as to be accurately recovered and counted using the tried and tested methods of centrifugation and McMaster faecal egg counting. Detection of equine tapeworm infestation requires a new and innovative veterinary test.

Simple Saliva-Swab Test for Tapeworm in Horses
EquiSal Tapeworm Saliva Testing Kit for Horses is an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay test known as ELISA. The Equisal ELISA test searches out any antibodies produced by a horse’s immune system in response to tapeworm infection.

The EquiSal Tapeworm test works like an antibody blood test but uses saliva which horse
owners can collect themselves using a specially designed mouth swab as shown in this video . The swab is then simply packed in the preservative provided in the kit and posted to the laboratory in the freepost bag provided.

How Good Is The Equisal Saliva Tapeworm Test?

In a 2016 large-scale stables trial of Equisal, only 22% of the 749 horse tested were found to require veterinary treatment. This means that 78% – 583 horses – might have been unnecessarily and expensively treated if Equisal testing had not been carried out.

The economics of Equisal testing speak for themselves. Targetted treatment is not only economical, it also reduces the frightening prospect of runaway drug resistance resulting in debilitating and potentially lethal equine tapeworm infections.

To Treat or Not to Treat – That is The Question

The only 100% accurate way to measure a horse’s tapeworm burden would be count the number of worms within the horse’s intestines. In validation studies, the EquiSal Tapeworm test only misreported horses as tapeworm free when fewer than 20 tapeworms were present.

Parasitologists consider horses and donkeys showing fewer than 20 tapeworms to have a non-pathogenic medical condition. This means that these tests confirm the EquiSal Tapeworm Test as a success in identifying all pathologically significant tapeworm burdens.

Vets and stable owner can find all their technical questions about Equisal Testing answered in detail here, on Vetlab’s EquiSal Tapeworm FAQs page.

McMaster Slide Test: Starting Out in DIY Animal Parasite Load Testing

Posted on by Les Ellison
McMaster Slide Test: Starting Out in DIY Animal Parasite Load Testing

The restrictions imposed during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic forced keepers of pet, domestic and rescued animals to carry out their own parasite load monitoring using the McMaster Slide Faecal Egg Count (FEC) test.

With veterinary practices and diagnostics mostly back to normal, many keepers continue to easily and cost effectively monitor their own animals. Here’s how to get started with only the most essential of veterinary laboratory equipment and an easy to follow McMaster Slide Counting Method.

Get Started In DIY Faecal Egg Monitoring

The McMaster Slide method of estimating the parasite load of an animal is made up of just four easy to understand and perform steps.

First, separate the worm eggs from a sample of the animal’s faeces. Second, find the eggs (oocytes) using a microscope and, third, count them. Finally, knowing both the weight of faeces sampled and the number of worm eggs counted, calculate the animal’s likely level of worm infection.

Egg Counting: What You Need – Flotation Solutions

Not as obvious as the microscope and McMaster counting slide, the Flotation Solutions are the key to the success of egg counting and identification. Flotation solutions are made to a standard or customer specified, specific gravity (SG) more usually known as density.

The fluid density is chosen such that faecal matter and other debris is more dense than the solution and so sinks. But the parasite eggs are less dense, and so float to the top making finding, counting and identifying them straightforward with the right equipment.

Egg Counting: What You Need – The Microscope

Essential to starting out on faecal egg monitoring is a microscope capable of ranging from 40-times (x40) to 100-times (x100) magnification. The Vetlab Premiere Range of microscopes are economical, easy to use and popular with diagnostic and teaching laboratories.

The microscope will be used to find and count the number of parasite eggs present in a small sample of animal faeces. With a bit of practice it’ll become straightforward not only to estimate the number of eggs, but even identify the likely species of worm causing infection.

Egg Counting: What You Need – The McMaster Counting Slide

The McMaster Counting Slide is the simple yet brilliantly adapted microscope slide used and relied upon by animal health practitioners since 1939. Made in glass or tough acrylic plastic, the slide is basically the carrier for a square cavity of known volume – usually 0.15ml.

After a sample of faeces, treated with a specific ‘flotation solution’ is placed in the McMaster Slide cavity and covered with a second, thinner slide. Parallel lines etched into this ‘cover slide’ create five equal divisions. Viewed with the microscope, the floating parasite eggs – just under the cover slip – can be counted and identified within each division.

Egg Counting: What You Need – The Simple Final Calculation

With a little practice, counting the number of parasite eggs seen within the grid lines of the McMaster Slide becomes a quick and easy routine.
As long as the Vetlab McMaster Slide Counting Method has been followed precisely, all that remains is to multiply the counted number of parasite eggs by 25 to get the number of eggs per gram (e.p.g.) of animal faeces.
For more information on the Vetlab McMaster Slide Count Method, veterinary laboratory equipment, ready-made or customised flotation solutions, search or click Vetlab F.E.C  Kits & Equipment

 

For further information visit our website www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or call 01798 874567

Hedgehogs to Llamas: The McMaster DIY Faecal Egg Count

Posted on by Les Ellison
Hedgehogs to Llamas: The McMaster DIY Faecal Egg Count

Simple, reliable and cost effective, the McMaster slide Faecal Egg Count (FEC) test equips you to monitor the parasitic load and intestinal health of your pet, commercial and rescue animals.

Left untreated, parasitic intestinal worms in animals from hedgehogs to llamas and alpacas can cause serious illness and even death to infected animals.

A wide variety of parasitic worms can reproduce inside loved and valuable animals. Infection spreads through millions of microscopic eggs shed into the faeces of even one host animal to contaminate shared bedding, stabling, pasture or foodstuff.

Impact Of Covid 19 On Routine Faecal Parasite Egg Monitoring

For pet, commercial and rescue animal keepers, restricted access to routine veterinary monitoring was one of many distressing side effects of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Managing the risks to animal health, even by such readily treatable conditions as parasitic intestinal worms, became much more critical in the absence of regular and reliable testing.

Do It Yourself Diagnostic Faecal Egg Counting (FEC) Techniques

Conveniently, for pet, commercial and rescue animal keepers, the veterinary standard diagnostic for intestinal worms can now be simply, reliably, and economically carried out as a DIY in-house test.
Although microscopic parasitic intestinal worms can be difficult to observe and identify, their eggs – and their potential to cause significant further infection – are larger and more easily observed and identified.

Identifying Intestinal Worms And Estimating Parasitic Load

Identifying and estimating an animal’s ‘parasitic load’ uses pre-prepared solutions and basic laboratory equipment, readily available from Vetlab Supplies. Vetlab’s easy-to-follow laboratory method guides you through the taking of samples, preparing the test, examination under the microscope and identifying the type and likely numbers of parasitic intestinal worms.
The straightforward method is known to veterinary surgeons as the McMaster Slide FEC (Faecal Egg Count) Test. A laboratory standard since 1939, The McMaster Slide is basically a small glass cavity of known volume with a calibrated transparent cover that can be viewed under a microscope.

The McMaster Slide Standard Laboratory Faecal Egg Count (FEC)

The McMaster Slide Test relies on the simple fact that, in specified flotation solutions, parasite worm eggs float, while most of the other solid matter in animal faeces tends to sink. So if the number of parasite eggs in a measured weight of faeces can be counted, then the parasitic load in the animal’s digestive system can be easily calculated.
And, because the eggs of different parasites have different characteristics, so the careful use of a veterinary microscope and a guided choice of specific flotation solutions, the type and species of intestinal worm can be identified for relevant treatment and control.

Identify Parasites With Off The Shelf Or Custom Made Flotation Solutions

Vetlab Supplies offers a range of off the shelf and customised faecal flotation solutions ideal for general and species specific egg count testing. Matching the density (specific gravity) of the flotation solution to the density of the target worm species eggs allows a qualitative as well as quantitative estimate of an animal’s parasitic load.

For McMaster Slides manufactured in glass and robust acrylic, together with all necessary flotation solutions, as well as economical easy to set up and use microscopes, just click or search Vetlab Supplies F.E.C Kits & Equipment

 

For further information visit our website www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or call 01798 874567

UriStain Urine Sediment Staining

Posted on by Les Ellison
UriStain Urine Sediment Staining

Aids Diagnosis of Kidney Disease

Sediment in centrifuged animal urine samples generally indicates some sort of renal malfunction. UriStain™ urine sediment staining and microscopic examination provide a convenient method for identifying cellular and non-cellular sedimentary components and contributing to a timely, accurate diagnosis.

Clouded Urine Is Obvious, But The Cause Might Be More Obscure

Healthy kidneys generally produce clear, cloudless urine with little or no insoluble matter. Urine with a murky appearance, caused by suspended solid material, could indicate kidney malfunction potentially leading to complete renal failure.

Kidney failure may already be suspected based on other observed symptoms or reports of incidents such as injury or poisoning. Abnormally opaque or coloured urine samples can provide veterinary laboratories with a diagnostic opportunity without the need for invasive tissue sampling biopsy.

Centrifugation, Staining And Microscopic Examination Of Urine Sediment

Centrifugation of a urine sample in a veterinary centrifuge will cause any solid matter to concentrate at the bottom of the sample tube. Microscopic examination of the re-suspended precipitate may assist in identifying the type and source of any solid material.

Unambiguous visualisation and differentiation of the sedimentary components are essential to the rapid and accurate diagnosis of the cause of any renal problem. Hardy Diagnostics UriStain from Vetlab Supplies is formulated to enable veterinary laboratories to categorise the most likely solid materials responsible for clouding in animal urine samples.

Clear Differential Staining Of Cellular And Non-cellular Components

Colour responsive UriStain™ assists the veterinary microscopist in distinguishing between living cellular material, and non-viable cells, cellular fragments and other non-soluble material. Parallel examination of an unstained microscopic preparation helps identify sedimentary components based on their unstained as well as on their stained morphology.

Red blood cells, in suspensions of urinary sediment, will stain faintly pink, while the nuclei of white cells and other epithelial cells appear a deep purple colour. Yeast cells, recognisable by their morphology, also appear purple as do dead bacteria. Fungal mycelia and spores show a lighter purple. The parasitic protozoan, Trichomonas, stains light blue but might also appear colourless.

Fat droplets, with their characteristic ‘honeycomb’ appearance, remain unstained. Together with their morphology, hyaline casts – a mucoprotein potentially indicative of glomerulonephritis, and other granular material, can also be characterised by their response to UriStain visualisation.

Ready To Use And No Filtration Required

Composed of certified source dyes, the UriStain balance of Ammonium Oxalate, Safranin and Crystal Violet provides veterinary laboratories with a stable, convenient and practical staining protocol based on a reformulation of the Sternheimer-Malbin urine sediment procedure.

Ready to use, the UriStain™ reagent is supplied in convenient 15ml dropper bottles and requires no filtration prior to adding to the centrifuged urinary sediment. Veterinary microscopes equipped with low power magnification (100X) and high power magnifications (400X) enable the stained components to be precisely identified and quickly cell-counted if required. This product is directly comparable to Sedi-Stain, if not better!

For further information visit our website or Tel: 01798 874567 and we will be delighted to help.

 

 

Brucellosis Vaccine

Posted on by Les Ellison
Brucellosis Vaccine

Initiative Calls For New Collaborative Approach

The Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVMed) is calling for veterinary laboratory, academic and industrial collaboration toward ‘milestone two’ in developing and manufacturing an effective vaccine against the livestock disease, brucellosis.

Brucellosis causes abortions, infertility, lower milk production

Caused by infection with the bacterium Brucella melitensis. Brucellosis causes abortions, infertility, lower milk production and weight loss among cows, sheep, goats and buffalo herds. Brucellosis is ‘zoonotic’, meaning that it can, under some circumstances, cross the species boundary and infect humans. The annual £359m economic burden of brucellosis falls most heavily on small scale and subsistence livestock keepers in the developing countries of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Symptoms of brucellosis include swollen udders, swollen testicles in males, nervousness, fever and, most characteristically premature abortion. At present, there is no effective vaccine against B. melitensis, a situation that the Ag Med managed ‘Brucellosis Challenge’ means to correct.

Combating brucella infection

The difficulty in combating Brucella infection rests on its ability to escape the attention of the host animal’s immune system. Even though it doesn’t form resistant spores, the aerobic, gram-negative coccobacilli can survive and multiply within the very cells designed to destroy them. Safe within these ineffective killer-cells, the host’s circulatory system carries the invader into the central nervous, genital-urinary, pulmonary and musculoskeletal system.

The ‘Brucellosis Challenge’ is a funded by AgResults – on behalf of the Australian, Canadian, UK and the US governments, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The 10 year project incentivises participating veterinary laboratories, academic institutions and industrial manufacturers with ‘milestone’ funding prizes each worth up to £70,000.

Three ‘milestones’ (develop an idea, prove the concept, register the product) mark the progress of the challenge toward its goal. With ‘milestone two’ in sight, the aim is to produce a brucellosis vaccine that is: safe for pregnant animals, effective in more than 80% of vaccinated animals, deliverable in a single, annual vaccination all at an affordable cost and with a long shelf life.

Testing for Brucella canis

Long shelf life and affordability are key features of the FASTest Brucella Canis test for the causative organism of brucellosis in dogs. B. Canis causes abortion typically after 45-55 days although, because dead foetuses might be reabsorbed, the observed symptom might be a failure to conceive. In males, the main symptom may be testicular degeneration and semen with no sperm, reduced sperm or large numbers of abnormal sperm resulting in infertility. Non-specific signs in both dogs and bitches include lethargy and apparent premature ageing.

Requiring no refrigerated storage and delivering a clear-cut colour-change result in 20 minutes, the cost-effective diagnostic veterinary test is a true field test for use on site at kennels and canine breeders.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Lower Lambing Season Losses

Posted on by Les Ellison
Lower Lambing Season Losses

Fast Field Test for E.coli- K99 Pathogen

The first lambs of the lambing season are here and full of the joys of the spring yet to arrive. Delivering as early as the second week in January, the most productive ewes will give birth to twins or even triplets, with quadruplets not uncommon and the occasional delivery of quintuplets.

Large numbers of new-borns fail to thrive

Sadly, the arrival of so many newborn lambs over a relatively short time span can result in a large number of new-borns failing to thrive early, sicken or die. In well managed flocks, mortality among newborn lambs is reported to be as low as 5%, but loss rates can be as high as 20% in extreme circumstances. Every lamb lost is damaging to the economic survival of Britain’s highly pressured sheep farms.

High mortality among newborn commercial animals

One all too common cause of high mortality among newborn commercial animals is pathogenic E.coli infection. A particularly pathogenic strain of the common gut bacteria, Escherichia coli, is known in veterinary laboratories as E.coli-K99. The K99 tag refers to a molecular feature on the surface of the E.coli bacteria that differentiates it from other, less harmful strains. The feature effectively disguises the invader from the host animal’s protective system of search-and-destroy ‘phagocyte’ cells that normally seek out and engulf unwelcome bacteria rendering them harmless. Unrecognised by infection-fighting phagocytes, the multiplying bacteria infiltrate the host animal’s digestive system causing severe tissue damage and resulting in dangerous fluid loss through uncontrollable diarrhoea.

Identifying pathogenic E.coli infection

Veterinary laboratories have exploited the K99 marker as a means of identifying pathogenic E.coli infection, allowing treatment with antibiotics that can also identify, target and destroy bacteria with the K99 antigen.

The ability to quickly and confidently identify K99 E.coli is vital because severe diarrhoea and dehydration is deadly not only in newborn lambs, but also in calves and piglets. Diarrhoea in newborn animals can have multiple causes, including infection with enterotoxic Rotavirus, Coronavirus, Cryptosporidium, Salmonella and Giardia, so it can be difficult to make a quick diagnosis based on symptoms alone.

Rapid and reliable – all-in-one veterinary field test

Vetlab Supplies FASTest E.coli-K99 Strip is the genuine go-anywhere veterinary field-test for E.coli-K99 in lamb, calf and piglet faeces. Rapid and reliable, the all-in-one kit requires no refrigerated storage or laboratory equipment to produce a quick, clear-cut, colour change diagnosis of K99 infection.

FASTest E.coli-K99 Strip, and other Vetlab Supplies veterinary diagnostic kits provide timely and reliable support to the veterinary examination of animals suffering pathogenic digestive tract infections.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Survey of Horses and Owners Shows Importance of FEC Monitoring

Posted on by Les Ellison
Survey of Horses and Owners Shows Importance of FEC Monitoring

A survey of horse owners at the 2017 Royal Welsh Show found that better awareness of routine faecal egg counting (FEC) in horses could reduce the need for veterinary treatment.

The UK’s county-based agricultural shows are an ideal opportunity for producers, consumers and their suppliers to gather and exchange information toward the improvement animal husbandry, health and welfare.

Unique opportunity to gather information

The Royal Welsh Show, held each July at the Llanelwedd showground in Builth Wells, Powys is among the largest of the county agricultural shows both in the UK and in Europe. The gathering of so many from so far afield provides veterinary laboratory researchers with a unique opportunity to gather real-world information from a wide range of animals and their owners.

At the 2017 Royal Welsh Show, researchers from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth collected faecal samples from 60 horses taking part in the four-day event. Using a commercial faecal egg flotation system they recorded the number of nematode eggs per gram (epg) of faecal matter, and related their findings to monitoring and treatment details supplied by horse owners.

Faecal egg counting in horses at the show revealed detectable nematode infection in 30 (50%) of tests. Almost a third (27%) were scored above the 200 epg baseline generally considered as requiring anti-parasite treatment. Questioning the owners and keepers revealed that, on average, horses received 3 anthelmintic treatments per year, though some received none, and others as many as 6.

18% of owners confessed to irregular FEC testing

Asked about the frequency of faecal egg count analysis, almost a fifth (18%) of owners confessed to irregular and infrequent testing, while only two of the sixty reported a routine approach with repeat testing every eight weeks. The value of FEC monitoring was reflected in the fact that only two of the regularly tested horses returned egg counts above the 200 epg threshold.

Overall, the average egg count of untested horses was more than four times that of animals whose owners committed to routine faecal egg monitoring. The benefit of regular FEC testing was further proven by the researchers’ observation that horses not subject to routine FEC analysis were more than 150 per cent more likely to require veterinary treatment.

While the survey strongly suggests that owners are not over-medicating their horses, it also indicates a low level of FEC monitoring in the wider horse-owning community. Researchers from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences hope that the Royal Welsh Show findings will highlight the crucial role of routine faecal egg counting in horses in equine health and welfare management.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary products visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Paramphistomiasis In The UK – Accurate Egg Counting Is No Fluke

Posted on by Les Ellison
Paramphistomiasis In The UK – Accurate Egg Counting Is No Fluke

Paramphistomiasis, or rumen fluke, is of increasing interest as a parasitic disease of livestock producing a range of non-specific symptoms including diarrhoea, weight loss and general weakening.

Paramphistomes are two-host trematode parasites that spread their lifecycle between mammals and molluscs. Grazing on infected snail material introduces parasite cysts into a ruminant’s digestive system where hatched-out flukes feed before heading up into the rumen. Here they attach to the rumen wall and feed on its contents like a mass of pink maggots. Resistant eggs (oocytes) pass through the gut and out with the host’s faeces. Taken into roving snails, the oocysts hatch and reproduce to complete the life cycle.

Observed in British livestock as far back as the 1950s

Rumen thrives in the warm moist tropical climate with little significant impact on livestock economics. More recently, the organism has become increasingly common in temperate climes infected an estimated 20% to 30% of European livestock. Recent studies report the parasite as present in up to 77% of sheep in Ireland with prevalence across the UK varying between 29% and 52%.
Observed in British livestock as far back as the 1950s, the prominent paramphistome species identified in the UK is Calicophoron daubneyi. Since the late 2000s, the trematode’s eggs have started appearing in routine Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis (VIDA) examinations.

Detecting the heavier eggs

Rumen fluke eggs are relatively heavy, compared to the oocysts of most intestinal parasites. Consequently, centrifugation using flotation solutions and convenient recovery systems such as Ovatube are not efficient in the detection of rumen fluke oocysts in animal faeces. Veterinary laboratories generally employ ‘sedimentation’ rather than ‘flotation’ techniques to detect the heavier eggs of trematode flukes.

In sedimentation, a small sample of faeces is thoroughly suspended in water and the bulk of solid material removed using a coarse metal or cloth strainer. Left to settle, the sediment from the filtrate is then re-suspended in clean water. Adding a drop of methylene blue or malachite green to the recovered solid material from this suspension will clearly stain remaining faecal material blue or green, leaving parasite eggs unstained.

Diagnosis and control of this new invader

A veterinary microscope equipped with 10x eyepieces and a 10x objective allows identification of Paramphistomum and other relatively heavy parasite oocysts including Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke). Using a McMaster Worm Egg Counting Slide, to relate the number of eggs found to the number of faeces sampled, allows a quantitative assessment of the level of parasite infection.

The likely economic impact of the spread of rumen fluke is as yet uncertain. Fortunately, because its eggs can be detected during examinations for liver fluke in faecal samples, and its similar life cycle, veterinary laboratories are forewarned and forearmed in the diagnosis and control of this new invader.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary products visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Egg Counts and Coccidians – Controlling Coccidiosis in Cattle and Sheep

Posted on by Les Ellison
Egg Counts and Coccidians – Controlling Coccidiosis in Cattle and Sheep

Coccidiosis is an intestinal disease caused by single-celled coccidian parasites. Though there are several species of coccidian protozoa, all must get inside the cells lining the intestines of their host to reproduce.

Coccidians spread when their eggs (oocysts) shed with their host’s faeces contaminating the food of other potential hosts. Mainly associated with poultry, infected birds suffer enteritis with blood stained diarrhoea, becoming lethargic, anaemic and showing a generally degraded condition.

Distinguishing between coccidiosis and similar symptoms

Poultry coccidians don’t infect farm mammals, nor do the cow and sheep equivalents infect chickens and waterfowl. In birds, veterinary microscopy of tissue from the characteristically swollen intestines of confirms coccidian infection. In sheep and cows, distinguishing between coccidiosis and similar symptoms of colibacilliosis, cryptospiridiosis, coronovirus, rotavirus and bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) can require further veterinary laboratory investigation.

Veterinary diagnostic kits equip busy vets with a fast and reliable answer to the question of which parasite is responsible for the observed symptoms. Vetlab’s FASTest kits provide accurate, early diagnosis even in the field allowing treatment and preventative measures to begin immediately.

Using histological staining techniques

Where coccidiosis is indicated, faecal oocyst counts can give an estimate of the level of infection. Faecal egg count flotation solutions, Ovatube detection kits and smooth, quiet veterinary centrifuges make oocyst recovery quick and clean. Veterinary microscopes and histological staining techniques support the quantitation and identification of particular coccidian species.

In recent years, histological and egg count surveys have estimated the coccidian infection rate of cattle to be about 20%. However, not all species of coccidians cause disease, and a heavy oocyte burden doesn’t always indicate a clinically significant infection.

The risk is especially high where many animals are confined

Sever coccidiosis in calves and lambs can result in life-threatening dehydration. Infection usually follows from ingestion of oocyte-infected faeces or contaminated food. The risk is especially high where many animals are confined in faeces-soiled enclosures or where young animals are grazed on land contaminated by material from hosting adults.

The exception to coccidian species specificity is Toxoplasma gondii. T.gondii reaches maturity and reproduces only in cats, where it causes more serious symptoms. Toxoplasmosis only rarely causes illness in humans and generally only in immunologically weakened dogs.

T.gondii oocysts in faeces from roaming cats can initiate abortion or foetal reabsorption in sheep. The veterinary response to this commercial risk includes vaccination, husbandry and animal-health expertise with quick detection and diagnosis with the FASTest Toxoplasmosis g diagnostic kit.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

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