Can you spread parasites in your slurry?

roran

Lads,
I have/had a problem with fluke for some time now (recently learned this :mad:). Just wondering if they can be spread by slurry onto land therefore prolonging those pests about the place? Anyone know?

Highland

No they cant. The eggs are passed out onto pasture and hatch once 10 degrees C. The hatched larvae have 24 hours to find a mud snail (there are millions of these on wet ground) If they dont find mud snail they die and thats the end of the story. No mud snails in the slurry tank.

But you will need a prevention programme to deal with the parasite as it is virtually impossible to get rid, once arrive on your farm. The only way to eliminate it is to eliminate the mud snails - requires draining of land and eliminating mud snail habitat

roran

Highland wrote: »

No they cant. The eggs are passed out onto pasture and hatch once 10 degrees C. The hatched larvae have 24 hours to find a mud snail (there are millions of these on wet ground) If they dont find mud snail they die and thats the end of the story. No mud snails in the slurry tank.

But you will need a prevention programme to deal with the parasite as it is virtually impossible to get rid, once arrive on your farm. The only way to eliminate it is to eliminate the mud snails - requires draining of land and eliminating mud snail habitat

many thanks for your reply Highland, you sound like you know a thing or two about fluke too. But are we talking about the same thing here?

You say that 'eggs are passed out onto pasture...', but I am talking about my housed stock over the winter months and their dung has ended up in my slurry pit (with fluke eggs passed out too into the mix). All that I can find by googling is that parasites, eg fluke, do not hatch in unfavorable conditions, so is it possible for them to lay dormant in the slurry tank, until I spread the slurry on the land? You see, I am now introducing them into a more favourable climate AND, slurry being 'wet' is suitable for hatched young to find a mud snail (who are as you say, 'are millions of these on wet ground'). My land, I would regard as 'soft' from Nov. to March and although there is not much flooding, there might be enough micro pools for the young fluke to find mud snails.

I know that I am flailing about here, but it struck me as I was spreading manure over a month ago and cannot find a suitable answer on the 'net. I can find plenty of references to coccidia being spread by slurry, but where are the references from your sources?

Advance thanks to whoever can answer my query...but if you don't know, I hope it doesn't affect you one day!!:eek:

Highland

Fluke eggs are pretty hardy but hatch once 10 degree C so if your slurry temp reached that they would have hatched and then it would be bye bye. Dont worry about the slurry - its a non issue, there will be plenty of residual eggs and encrusted larvae (which are the really tough buggers) on the pasture - the slurry wont make any material difference. You should aim to treat you stock to eliminate egg laying fluke (and imature fluke) during the housing period - if you havnt done this then you need to treat them ASAP.

The important point to note is that if you have fluke on you farm then you have to learn to live with it and dose your animals. Each adult fluke can lay up to 10,000 eggs per day, it is not uncommon for sheep, cattle to have 500 plus adult fluke in their livers - producing up to 5,000,000 eggs per day. each larvae that hatches and makes it to a mud snail will multiply by 600 within the snail - so technically your 5 million could become 3 billion infective larvae on the grass from one day's egg laying. Now in practice most larvae fail to find a snail in the required time, but the message is clear - put in place a plan to control fluke if you ahve a problem with it - slurry is not something that you need to worry about.

roran

Highland wrote: »

Fluke eggs are pretty hardy but hatch once 10 degree C so if your slurry temp reached that they would have hatched and then it would be bye bye. Dont worry about the slurry - its a non issue, there will be plenty of residual eggs and encrusted larvae (which are the really tough buggers) on the pasture - the slurry wont make any material difference. You should aim to treat you stock to eliminate egg laying fluke (and imature fluke) during the housing period - if you havnt done this then you need to treat them ASAP.

The important point to note is that if you have fluke on you farm then you have to learn to live with it and dose your animals. Each adult fluke can lay up to 10,000 eggs per day, it is not uncommon for sheep, cattle to have 500 plus adult fluke in their livers - producing up to 5,000,000 eggs per day. each larvae that hatches and makes it to a mud snail will multiply by 600 within the snail - so technically your 5 million could become 3 billion infective larvae on the grass from one day's egg laying. Now in practice most larvae fail to find a snail in the required time, but the message is clear - put in place a plan to control fluke if you ahve a problem with it - slurry is not something that you need to worry about.

Thanks again Highland for your information. I should have mentioned from the outset, that as soon as I found out that I had a problem I had them dosed (mainly rumen fluke), but I was surprised that it seemed endemic in my herd when fluke was never a feature before this. I was just wondering how they seemed to have 'invaded' our place and this was/is what I came up with.

And I don't want to come across as 'ungrateful' to you for being so kind to respond (twice) to my queries. But I can't just go on someone saying 'don't worry...trust me', (even though you seem to speak with a level of knowledge on this topic) without pointing to references.

I suppose, I just wished that I had taken samples of my slurry for analysis to really put my mind at rest. However, I have been digging on the 'net since I first posted here and this is what I have come across so far...

Fluke eggs hatch after 9 days incubation at optimal temperatures 22 to 26C (www.sac.ac.uk/mainrep/pdfs/tn557liverfluke.pdf), but can take upto 90 days (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__.../liver-fluke-disease-in-sheep-and-cattle.pdf) in unfavorable conditions.

I also understand that oxygen is a requirement for fluke egg hatching, but surely this may not be the case if the eggs are buried in a slurry tank, but on slurry spreading, much more oxygen is readily available.

Maybe I am just looking for reasons to back-up my ol' idea (and not many of them are great!!). But I would really like to know if we have 'experts' that have looked at slurry in this context (can't find their references though).