![]() Increased rainfall and warmer conditions means this tiny species is able to thrive in our current climate. The challenge is that the number of mud snails is ever-increasing. Image 3 – Bottle jaw can occur with Chronic Fluke FSA data show that 6.6% of all sheep livers were rejected due to liver fluke in 2014.īottle Jaw (Image 3) is often a well recognised sign in sheep: a swelling appears below the jaw to often indicate low blood protein levels due to the blood feeding adult fluke. To protect sheep and cattle from chronic liver fluke is to protect them from signs like diarrhoea and anaemia, but more importantly production loss, AHDB estimates liver fluke costs the beef industry £8-9.5 million / year – loss of productivity could be as much as £25 to £30 per beef animal and estimated at £3 to £5 per infected sheep. Image 2 – Adult fluke causing bile duct damage in the liver Typically, this infestation becomes evident in winter, however this can occur all year round due to the survival of the mud snails hepatica in the bile ducts, these are blood feeders, drinking up to 0.5ml a day, which could have been picked up three months before symptoms present. Image 1 – Migrating immature fluke travelling from the small intestine to the liverĬhronic fluke is the result of adult F. Attacks of acute fluke often occur in late summer and autumn, caused by immature flukes that have migrated from the small intestine and then through the liver, as shown below: In both cases, sudden death can be one of the first indications it is there. It can take a few months for sheep to show signs of fluke and there are two forms of the disease: acute and chronic. The life cycle then continues beneath its shell to produce infective cysts on grass these are then eaten by the grazing cattle and sheep. Miracidia (motile, resembling small tadpoles) are released when eggs hatch in the correct conditions (classically spring) and the snail must be penetrated quickly. Just one fluke egg hatching to a miracidium on pasture infecting the snail can produce 600 infective metacercariae, putting your stock at risk. Prolific in undrained waters like marshes, streams and ditches, but also very much at home in boggy gateways and around feed and water troughs it is the intermediate host of parasitic fluke, Fasciola hepatica. ![]() ![]() The mud snail ( Galba truncatula) is small in size at 7-12mm, but large and increasing in population. We inspect the mud snails that host parasitic fluke to reveal when an attack is most likely and how to spot the signs. A change in season can bring with it a potentially deadly disease for sheep. ![]()
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