Managing the barber’s pole worm in the Intermountain West

At this time of year, I typically receive many inquiries regarding internal parasite issues in lambs and ewes, especially those managed on irrigated pastures. If grazing irrigated pastures, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Producers will need to implement a management plan for internal parasites, especially the barber’s pole worm. The following are some helpful reminders for sheep producers to consider. 

Conditions for infection

In the summer months, when minimum daily temperatures stay above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the barber’s pole worm, otherwise known as Haemonchus contortus, is the most aggressive internal parasite species in sheep.  

This parasite is transmitted orally from contaminated pasture through a complex three-week life cycle. Recent work published in the West found across 25 sheep flocks grazing irrigated pastures, this was the most prevalent worm species (70 percent of worm burden) during the June to August sampling period.

A clinical burden of adult barber’s pole worms inside the abomasum of a sheep can result in the loss of up to one cup of blood per day. The damage it causes to this critical compartment of the ruminant digestive system is a significant setback for affected animals. 

In addition to the typical fluid swelling beneath the jaw (bottle jaw), decreased weight gain and milk production are all production losses from this parasite.

Management 

Best management practices now recommend a selective treatment program focusing treatment on the sheep showing clinical signs, rather than mass treatment of the entire flock. A good rule of thumb is 20 percent of the sheep are 80 percent of the problem with this parasite. This principle of selective treatment, or “refugia,” has been proven to maintain a population of internal parasites that have never had exposure to the dewormer, which ultimately keeps it working longer in the flock. 

Using the FAMACHA system allows producers to estimate clinical illness by looking at degree of anemia in the lower eyelid, yet a more simplistic approach entails only treating those “poor doing” animals in the flock. Rotating dewormers is not recommended until producers ensure a product is no longer working. With a limited arsenal of deworming products available on the market, indiscriminate rotation accelerates worm resistance. 

Deworming
effectiveness and plan

Barber’s pole worm resistance to common classes of dewormers has been well documented internationally and especially in the Eastern region of the U.S. for 20 years. The University of Wyoming recently published data finding widespread barber’s pole worm resistance in Wyoming and Montana sheep flocks grazing irrigated pastures. 

The barber’s pole worm was resistant to benzimidazoles on 92 percent of ranches, ivermectins on 50 percent of ranches and moxidectins on only eight percent of ranches. It’s important to ask, is the dewormer being used still effective? 

Combination deworming is providing a full dose of two different classes of dewormer at the same time (do not mix) and has been shown to be effective at killing resistant worms. 

Lambs and ewes will reingest larvae when grazing unless they’re grazing a “clean” pasture which hasn’t been grazed in 30 to 40 days. Some producers have experienced success moving sheep to a fresh paddock every three days, and not returning to a previously grazed paddock for 30 days as an approach to avoiding reinfection. Drying out of pastures can kill unhatched larvae in the fecal pellet; shaded areas allow larvae to survive longer.

Fecal egg counts are one method to determine the quantity and type of internal parasite burden producers are dealing with. These can be pulled individually from the animal or freshly picked up off the ground, but can provide an important baseline in order to implement a treatment strategy.

Barber’s pole worm larvae need water to survive and move up the leaf to be ingested. If producers don’t graze irrigated acres in the warmest summer months, then they likely don’t have a barber’s pole worm issue. 

Fecal egg counts were highest from sheep grazing flood- and sprinkler-irrigated pastures: these pastures had 2,656 eggs per gram compared to 433 eggs per gram from those flocks grazing sub-irrigated pastures. The range flocks sampled had little to no barber’s pole worm eggs in the feces.

Producers can purchase the problem of resistant worms residing in the digestive tract of replacement rams and ewes. If purchasing breeding stock from a flock with known parasite issues, an effective quarantine period and fecal egg count from a veterinarian or veterinary diagnostic lab can help producers determine if an aggressive worming regime is needed before turning out into the flock. 

For more information about the amount and type of internal parasites in a flock, e-mail mbhuiya@uwyo.edu regarding eligibility for free or reduced parasite analysis as part of a multi-year study. 

The field of internal parasite management in sheep is ever evolving in response to these ever-changing worm species. A good resource for late-breaking information is wormx.info. To read more regarding the recent study conducted in the West, visit sheepusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2020-Combined-SGRJ.pdf. 

Whit Stewart is the University of Wyoming Extension sheep specialist. He can be reached at whit.stewart@uwyo.edu.