The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2013 - Issue 30 | Page 36

DAIRY

DO YOU DO THE MOO TEST?
Treating cows for gutworm
could help dairy farmers
in Yorkshire to make an
additional £14,621,627
every year, according to
new data from Merial
Animal Health.
Over the past four years
Merial has been supporting the

MOO Test, an independently
analysed bulk milk test
that measures the levels of
antibodies to gutworm with
results reported as low,
medium or high. During that
time over 730 herds across the
UK have been tested and more
than 90% have been found to

1. Reist M et al, Vet Rec 2002 151:377-380
2. Defra. 2013 3. McPherson WB et al, Proceedings
of the American Asssociation of Veterinary.
3. Parasitologists. 44th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, U 2.
Reist et al, Veterinary Record (2002) 151, 377-380 SA, 1999 Abstr.

have been exposed to a high
gutworm challenge.
Extensive research shows that
high levels of gutworm challenge
can significantly impact the
productivity of your milking herd,
including a loss of up to 2.2
litres of milk per cow per day1.
For each cow exposed to a high
level of challenge this can mean
a loss of up to 671 litres per
year equating to £188 per cow
at an average farmgate price for
2012 of 28.04p2 per litre.
Merial’s figures show that
88.7% of herds in across
the whole of Yorkshire tested
high for gutworm challenge.
If treatment had been given
to remove the gutworm
infection the extra milk yield
produced by these herds
would have generated an
additional income of around
£14,621,627 per year.

Eprinex® has a zero milk
withhold and is licensed for
the treatment and control of
gutworms and lungworm as
well as lice and mange mites.
Only Eprinex® has been
successfully used by farmers
for more than 15 years and is
supported by post-launch field
studies, demonstrating the
benefits of treatment on more
than 8000 dairy cows. Herds
can be treated without the
worry of lost milk sales, benefit
from improved milk yield and
also from improved fertility3.

To organise a MOO Test,
dairy farmers should
contact their local vet or
licensed animal medicine
prescriber or call Merial
Customer Support on 0800
592699.

Majority of British dairy farms
are overfeeding minerals
Most farms are feeding
well above recommended
levels of minerals,
increasing diet costs and
in some cases, possibly
having an impact on
animal health and a
negative effect on the
environment, according
to Professor Liam Sinclair
from Harper Adam
University.
Professor Sinclair, who
is working on a DairyCofunded research programme
examining mineral
requirements of dairy cow,
looked at mineral levels fed
on 50 farms and compared
them with the recommended
requirement levels. The
project took samples of TMR,
concentrate, forage and water

36

Oct/Nov 2013 FarmersMart

minerals as well as from
additional sources such as
boluses, injections and free
access. The results can be
seen in graph 1.
Under normal
circumstances, total copper in
the ration should typically be
20mg/Kg DM. But of the 50
farms in the study, 31 were
feeding above this level and
four were feeding above the
maximum permitted level of
40mg/kg DM.
Copper is deposited in the
cow’s liver until the burden
becomes too great and it is
released into the bloodstream,
possibly causing death by
toxicity. Because the copper
is stored in the liver, a blood
test will not help identify high
copper levels. Liver biopsies

are a more accurate test but
can be expensive.
Copper deficiency is
also the most common
mineral issue seen at the
Vet Investigation Centres
but most of the deficiency
problems in the UK are due
to the effects of antagonists
such as molybdenum,
sulphur and iron. Some of the
farms in this study had high
molybdenum levels but these
were not the same ones that
were feeding high levels of
copper.
Steps to help avoid
overfeeding minerals:
• One person on the farm
should have responsibility
for mineral nutrition, taking
into account all the different
sources

• Assessing mineral
requirements on farm should
start with forage analysis
• Forage analysis is more
useful than blood test when
looking at copper levels
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