Higher levels of liver fluke in factory cattle
Animal Health Ireland’s (AHI’s) Beef HealthCheck Programme has identified an increase in the level of liver fluke being witnessed in cattle sent to beef processing plants this year.
As presented in the autumn edition of the Beef HealthCheck Newsletter, Programme Manager, Dr Natascha Meunier outlined that an extremely wet 2023/2024 has seen an increase in liver fluke levels – the first rise reported since the programme commenced in participating meat factories back in 2016.
So far this year, the programme has collected data from 678,500 cattle. Of these, liver fluke damage has been seen in 7% of animals, while live liver fluke parasites were present in 2% of animals – an increase on last year.
Dr Meunier explained: “In 2024 so far, 23,700 herds have been recorded as part of the Beef HealthCheck Programme. This year, 39% of these herds had at least one animal showing signs of liver fluke damage when sent to slaughter. Active infection in one or more animals was seen with 17% of herds, compared to only 13% last year.”
Percentage of herds with liver fluke
As part of the update, a county by county map was also released, identifying the counties with the highest prevalence of at least one animal showing signs of liver fluke at slaughter.
On this, Dr Meunier said: “Nationally, the north-west counties have the highest numbers of herds affected by liver fluke, where between 67% and 80% of herds had signs of liver fluke at slaughter.
“On the other hand, there are 24% of herds that have not shown any evidence of liver fluke in animals that are presented for slaughter in the last four years. It is possible that these farms are currently free of liver fluke and may not need flukicide treatment but this should be discussed with your veterinary practitioner.”
Figure 1: Percentage of herds with at least one animal showing signs of liver fluke at slaughter in 2024 to date
Caution required
Given the high level of liver fluke this year, Dr Meunier advised farmers to be cautious to prevent production losses, noting: “The liver fluke risk is also very farm specific depending on the history of fluke on farm, management practices and the number of wet, muddy areas in fields.
“Farmers and their veterinary practitioners can access and review their Beef HealthCheck slaughter data directly through beefhealthcheck.icbf.com, which will have a record of health data for all animals slaughtered at participating meat factories since the start of the programme in 2016.”
As part of the Beef HealthCheck Newsletter, Dr Meunier also shared key information on controlling parasites in cattle at housing.
Also read: The successful control of liver fluke