A product used to treat sheep infested with ticks has had its status upgraded to become a licensed preventative that will keep animals clear of the parasites for up to ten weeks.
Crovect’, which is produced by Novartis Animal Health, also works in the treatment and control of headflies, the treatment of biting lice, and the prevention and treatment of blowfly strike in sheep.
With the extended claim, Crovect’ is now a good choice for long lasting tick treatment with the shortest meat withhold period available; this will prove useful for farmers taking lambs to market at this time of year.
Thomas Tiley, a vet with Novartis Animal Health, said: ’Previously Crovect was available as an immediate treatment only. Anecdotally we have had reports of it working for longer, but there was no specified length of cover. This announcement confirms Crovect’s status as a ten week lasting treatment. It is also the only long lasting tick control product on the market with such a short meat withhold period of just eight days.’
’There is evidence that ticks are spreading in the UK, both in terms of numbers and geographical areas; this has been demonstrated in recent studies*. The perceived distribution of ticks in Great Britain has expanded in recent years and abundances of ticks have increased at about three-quarters of locations surveyed*. In the most recent study done on dogs**, tick distribution was also shown to not just be present on moorland areas, but throughout the UK. Ticks are more prevalent than people think,’ he said.
’It’s important to control ticks as they do transmit some very damaging diseases in the same way mosquitoes do for humans. The worst of these diseases are louping ill, tick-borne fever and tick pyaemia, and symptoms vary from mild depression even through to death in severe cases. Further to this, the ticks themselves can be damaging to sheep, particularly if a severe infestation is present’ he said.
Most farmers are aware of whether they are living in a high risk tick area or have pasture where ticks are a problem. The insects prefer certain habitats such as rough grazing; also other species of mammals and birds are involved in their lifecycle so can act as a natural reserve.
’As ticks can be very difficult to see in sheep, treating with a long lasting product is a good idea if you think there is a likelihood of infestation. If one or two animals in a flock have them it is likely to be the tip of an iceberg, so you would be advised to treat the flock as a whole. It can be something you should also look at field by field ’ one area of land might be high risk while another is not,’ said Mr Tiley.
Helen Langham, Brand Manager at Novartis Animal Health said ’the licence claim extension for Crovect’ is very good news for the industry. At Novartis Animal Health, we consistently aim to provide innovative and complete solutions for our customers, and the ten week tick claim is a great example of this support. We are pleased to be able to bring this revised claim to the product to provide control of these troublesome parasites, both for health and welfare reasons and to assist in the protection of profitability for our farmer customers. Ticks can create a real problem for livestock, so it is important for farmers to use a suitable product to provide control. Crovect’ also has the advantage of a short meat withhold period, so farmers can be confident of bringing their animals to market tick and disease free,’ she said.
