A medicine used to combat worms in sheep has been hailed a success after its first year on the market, after more than a million doses were used for treatment in the UK.
Zolvix, which was launched by Novartis Animal Health in March last year, has played an important role in treating internal parasites that have resistance to older classes of wormer.
Mark Howells, a vet in Easingwold, North Yorkshire, said many of his clients had already taken on board the problems that anthelmintic resistance posed to the sheep industry in the UK, and that Zolvix had an important role to play.
"Following a recent meeting for our sheep clients, I can say there has been a good response to the problem of resistance. They have taken on board the idea of quarantine drenching as being an effective part of tackling resistance, so our uptake of Zolvix has been very good in the past year. We are also looking at the use of Zolvix over mid-season grazing. Zolvix is short acting, so is less likely to allow resistance to build up.
"As a practice we offered free faecal egg counting. Firstly this reduces overdosing, and also gives us the opportunity to encourage best practice along SCOPS guidelines," he said.
Mr Howells also welcomed the introduction of the Zolvix drenching gun: "The revolutionary drenching gun has had a positive effect on overdosing and underdosing, both of which can lead to more problems with resistance."
Mr Howells said he was hoping to work with Novartis to attend some of the agricultural shows in his area to talk to farmers and reinforce the messages about resistance.
Before the launch of Zolvix there were three groups of broad spectrum anthelmintics available in the UK. The white - benzimidazoles or 1-BZ, yellow - levamisoles or 2-LM, and clear - macrocyclic lactones or 3ML. Resistance to one of them is already widespread, and there is growing resistance to all three.
Zolvix formed a fourth generation of anthelmintic, which is known as the 4-AD, or orange drench class.
Simon Harris, Endoparasite Brand Manager at Novartis Animal Health, said: "Since its launch last year Zolvix has been a phenomenal success and has exceeded our expectations. The feedback we’ve had from farms throughout the UK has been very positive".
"Zolvix has an important role to play in managing the problem of anthelmintic resistance, and reducing the impact that worms have on the health of animals and the economic performance of our livestock farmers."
"We welcome the opportunity to work with Mark Howells and other vets in getting the resistance message across," he added.
The product can be used to treat sheep and lambs, including pregnant and lactating ewes, and breeding rams, due to its impressive safety profile. It also has a short meat withhold period of just seven days, which allows flexibility when marketing lambs.
It can be used in every flock every year to treat lambs in mid to late season, as guided by faecal egg count tests, and it should be used to dose all incoming sheep to avoid bringing resistant worms onto farm.
Best practice should be followed during use, with reference to the SCOPS guidelines. It is recommended that farmers should contact their advisors to define the correct programme for their farm.
