Northern Irish sheep farmers are being given the chance to travel to Isle of Islay in Scotland to learn about on-farm trial work looking at fluke detection and targeted treatments.
The farms are practising a targeted array of testing each autumn which includes blood testing first grazing youngstock in the flock, Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture (DAERA) says.
This to identify when the fluke challenge begins on each trial farm, followed by the use of copro-antigen testing and fluke egg detection to work out when treatments are required.
The trial has also used efficacy checks to monitor for triclabendazole resistance on farms.
Applications have now opened for one member or employee of a Northern Irish farm business that has 150 breeding ewes or more to visit the farms in Scotland.
Ten places are available on this first trip, DAERA says, and these will be allocated with preference given to those who meet the flock size criteria and financially benchmark.
The department said: "Faecal Egg Counting (FEC) has become more popular as routine husbandry in NI sheep flocks in recent years, with test results used mainly to determine the requirement for worm and fluke treatments.
"The trial outlined above has taken this practise to a more in depth level which allows farmers to identify when the fluke challenge begins on farm each year.
"[The farms use] young stock which have never been exposed to fluke previously in their lives, potentially delaying the need for fluke dosing in the earlier autumn months and allowing for greater efficiency in the autumn flock management.
"The subsequent copro-antigen and fluke detection tests allow farmers to identify the point at which the sheep flock has ingested fluke and the cycle has begun and allows for targeted treatment."
DAERA added: "All of which lends itself to responsible use of anthelmintics and helps to reduce the issue of resistance on farms which is becoming more prevalent."
The tour will include visits to four sheep farms over two days. The first day will be spent with two of the Islay trials farms participating in the fluke trial, Cornabus Farm and an RSPB upland farm.
The second day will be spent with two large scale sheep flocks, including a visit to the Islay Estate farm before returning home to Ballycastle that evening.
A feedback and discussion session will take place over dinner on the first evening.
This study tour is part of the Farm Innovation Visits Scheme which is being delivered by DAERA’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE).
Applications close on 5 August 2022 at 4.00pm.
