East coast

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Go to the Drench Decision Guide

 

Program summary

The WormBoss worm control program for the east coast areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria has five components that are most effective when used in combination.

A summary of the components is below (see further chapters for details).

1. Use grazing management to create low worm-risk paddocks

• Prepare low worm-risk paddocks for kidding does and weaners.
• Prevent contamination with worm larvae in the 2-3 months before they are needed:
  • Spell paddocks
  • Graze cattle or horses, grow browse, crops, hay or new pastures or graze with goats or sheep for up to 3 weeks after the protection period (when it is killing worms) of an effective drench¹.
• Where it is not possible to use grazing management, feedlotting of goats can be practiced. Feeders and waterers should be designed so there is no faecal contamination.
• Where scour worms are more prevalent, use Smart Grazing.
• Choose the least contaminated kidding paddocks for the most susceptible kidding does.
• Provide adequate browse where possible.

2. Breed and feed for goats resistant and resilient to worms

• Use bucks with better than average worm egg count Estimated Breeding Values (WEC EBVs) in KIDPLAN by choosing the more negative values. 
• Maintain good nutrition to enhance the goat’s immunity to worms. 

3. WormTest at recommended times 

• Does prior to kid marking and weaning and then WormTest at 4–6 week (summer) or 6–8 week (winter) intervals after a short-acting drench. If using a persistent drench then see ?Effective use of long-acting drenches.
• Kids from weaning to their first kidding: WormTest at 4–6 week (summer) or 6–8 week (winter) intervals after a short-acting drench. If using a persistent drench then see ?Effective use of long-acting drenches.
• Bring forward WormTests if there has been significant rain (20+ mm) that also has follow-up rain (10+ mm) in the following few weeks.  Do separate tests for adults and weaners.
• Bucks at 4–6 week (summer) or 6–8 week (winter) intervals after a short-acting drench and ensure a WormTest occurs one month before joining.
• Dry adult goats should still be monitored at 4–8 week intervals.
• If DrenchTest results are not available conduct a DrenchCheck 14 days after treatment.
• And at other non-routine times as suggested in the Drench Decision Guide.
• If you have only a small herd of goats, worm egg count testing can be supplemented with monthly body condition scoring and checking the eye mucous membrane colour at weekly (summer) and monthly (winter) intervals. 

4. Drench^1,2 strategically at recommended times 

• Quarantine drench all introduced goats with an effective short-acting drench that provides (for meat goats) four drench groups including one from either of the most recently available products or (for dairy goats) fenbendazole and abamectin which are registered for use where milk is for human consumption.
• Breeding does pre-kidding (as they temporarily lose their immunity).
• If kidding is spread out over months and does are not separated from the rest of the herd, still give a pre-kidding drench to individual does 4 weeks prior to kidding if due dates are known. This pre-kidding drench will not be as effective compared to the doe being drenched and moved to a low worm-risk paddock.
• Kids at weaning.
• Drench individual goats showing obvious signs of worm-related illness and WormTest the rest of the goat herd. 
• At other times, use the Drench Decision Guide, and the WormTest.

5. Manage drench resistance 

This is an up-to-date, integrated regional worm control program for goats for the east coast regions of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It builds upon earlier programs (including from the state departments of primary Industries: NSW DPI and Qld DAFF) and accumulated knowledge, as well as new information from the Integrated Parasite Management in Sheep project, funded by Australian Wool Innovation.

The program aims to improve the profitability and welfare of your goats through: 

• fewer deaths and illness from worms 
• fewer drenches, particularly long-acting drenches 
• improved productivity 
• prolonged life of drenches

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Authors:

Maxine Lyndal-Murphy (private consultant), Sandra Baxendell (Goat Veterinary Consultancies—goatvetoz), Lewis Kahn (ParaBoss), Deborah Maxwell (ParaBoss), Lewis Kahn (ParaBoss), Stephen Love (NSW DPI)

Acknowledgement:

This document is based on the sheep WormBoss regional program with changes supported by the Goat Industry Council of Australia and funded by Meat and Livestock Australia through the project ‘Expansion of WormBoss Website to Include Goats B.GOA.0120’.