Problem: Are you finding yourself having to drench too frequently? Are some of your sheep becoming affected by worms more easily than others? Or do you simply need to broaden your strategies for worm control and become less reliant on drenching?
Solution: Breeding for worm resistance by using rams with better than average worm resistance will increase the genetic resistance of your flock to worms.
Benefit: Worm-resistant sheep take longer to achieve worm burdens that require treatment, as many of the infective larvae they ingest do not establish in the sheep. The benefits of this are:
Currently, there are no commercially available tests to select for resilience.
Sheep that are resistant to worms can prevent some or all worms from establishing and as a result have lower worm egg counts.
Sheep that are resilient to worms can grow and produce with less ill effects from worms. An animal’s performance for a particular trait, such as growth, will also be dictated by its genetic merit for that trait. So, when comparing two animals with similar Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) for growth, a more resilient animal will perform better than a less resilient animal when both have high worm burdens. It is independent of worm resistance so must be selected separately by choosing better production performance.
Drench resistance is the ability of a worm to resist the effects of a drench. Note that drench resistance is a characteristic of the worm and differs from a sheep’s resilience and resistance to worms.
The propensity to scour has a substantial genetic component that is independent of both resistance and resilience to worms. To reduce dag/scouring select for low dag score and or low moisture levels in faeces independently to selection for low worm egg count.
2. Ensure that selection for worm resistance and dag is balanced with other performance traits.
Note: When extra traits are included in a selection program, the progress that can be made with each individual trait will decrease slightly, however progress with your breeding objective can still be high.
3. Choose the WEC ASBV age that corresponds to the time of most worm-challenge on your property, e.g. weaning (WWEC), post-weaning (PWEC), yearling (YWEC).
ASBVs are an estimate of an animal’s genetic merit rather than its visual or phenotypic merit. The effects of factors such as birth type, dam age, nutrition and management are removed to reveal an animal’s genetic breeding value: what can be passed onto its progeny. ASBVs are calculated and reported by Sheep Genetics, the national genetic analysis service for the sheep industry. Ram breeders who are members of MERINOSELECT or LAMBPLAN will have WEC ASBVs available for their sheep if they are measuring WEC.
Problem: Are you finding yourself having to drench too frequently? Are some of your goats becoming affected by worms more easily than others? Or do you simply need to broaden your strategies for worm control and become less reliant on drenching?
Solution: Breeding for worm resistance by using bucks with better than average worm resistance will increase the genetic resistance of your herd to worms.
Benefit: Worm-resistant goats take longer to achieve worm burdens that require treatment, as many of the infective larvae they ingest do not establish in the goat. The benefits of this are:
The best way to increase the genetic resistance of your herd to worms is to use bucks with better than average worm resistance as measured by more negative Estimated Breeding Values (EBV) for worm egg count (WEC) in KIDPLAN.
Currently, there are no commercially available tests to select for resilience, but the resilience of a herd can be improved by selecting bucks with favourable EBVs for various production traits.
Goats that are resistant to worms achieve lower worm egg counts by reducing worm development and growth, and egg production by female worms established in the gut. Reduced larval establishment and early expulsion of adult worms are not often observed in goats.
Goats that are resilient to worms can grow and produce with less ill effects from worms. An animal’s performance for a particular trait, such as growth, will also be dictated by its genetic merit for that trait. So, when comparing two animals with similar EBVs for growth, a more resilient animal will perform better than a less resilient animal when both have high worm burdens. It is independent of worm resistance, so must be selected separately by choosing better production performance.
Drench resistance is the ability of a worm to resist the effects of a drench. Note that drench resistance is a characteristic of the worm and differs from an animal’s resilience and resistance to worms.
The propensity to scour has a substantial genetic component that is independent of both resistance and resilience to worms. Only fibre goats will show dags, but meat and dairy goats can display soiling of their hindquarters and under their tails, but these effects do not last long and are not available as EBVs for goats.
Note: When extra traits are included in a selection program, the progress that can be made with each individual trait will decrease slightly, however progress with your breeding objective can still be high.
EBVs are an estimate of an animal’s genetic merit rather than its visual or phenotypic merit. The effects of factors such as birth type, dam age, nutrition and management are removed to reveal an animal’s genetic breeding value: what can be passed onto its progeny. EBVs are calculated and reported by Sheep Genetics, the national genetic analysis service for the sheep and goat industry. Buck breeders who are members of KIDPLAN will have WEC EBVs available for their goats if they are measuring WEC.
In this system you score the colour of the lower conjunctiva (the inside of the lower eyelid) to assess the level of anaemia (from blood loss) from barber’s pole worm (or less commonly, liver fluke or other diseases). If you regularly score individual goat eye colour as part of your barber’s pole worm management, then you can select for resilience to barber’s pole worm by choosing animals with darker eye colour scores, which may require fewer drenches for barber's pole worm.
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