Roundworm control in cattle are heavily reliant on the use of macrocyclic lactones. Recent reports of the advancement of resistance to drugs in the key cattle parasite Ostertagia ostertagi highlight the future issues facing the industry.  

As such, understanding of roundworms and the risk posed to cattle productivity is beginning to gain traction within the cattle industry.  Despite this forecasted demand, resources for cattle producers are limited and the lack of decision support may prevent uptake of faecal egg counting. The FEC Check tool provides support for the cattle industry to understand how, when and why to use faecal egg counts to control roundworms in cattle sustainably.   

Guides for the practical meaning of results are available (www.cattleparasites.org.uk/) but extracting information applicable to individual situations can be challenging. The Visual representation of the clinical implication of test results will simplify decision-making and combat variation amongst providers.  

FEC Check is a farmer-facing, free, online tool which helps with the interpretation of faecal egg count (FEC) results for roundworms.  The tool provides information and resources to aid users in conducting FECs and in the interpretation of results through a graphical interface that displays the clinical meaning of FEC results visually.  The app assists stakeholders with decision-making on if/when anthelmintic treatment is required and if it was effective. Targeted treatments can reduce chemical usage and slow the development of anthelmintic resistance whilst providing additional environmental and economic benefits. Egg counts are simple to perform, but translating the results into management decisions can be challenging and finding support information within industry resources is time-consuming.

Frequent testing can also build a picture of how wormy specific fields are, informing grazing management strategies, potentially reducing reliance on wormers in the longer term. 

• Test don’t guess fact sheet
• Test don’t guess animation

Pasture rotation, or rotational grazing, is a practical livestock management strategy where sheep and goats are systematically moved through a series of subdivided paddocks, allowing grazed areas time to rest and recover. This approach improves pasture productivity, forage utilization, and persistence by preventing overgrazing and promoting even grazing patterns. In practice, producers use temporary or permanent fencing to create multiple paddocks, moving animals every few weeks based on forage availability and growth rates. Water access is managed through fixed or portable systems to support frequent movement. 

A key benefit of pasture rotation is the reduction of internal parasite burdens. By rotating sheep and goats to fresh paddocks before parasite eggs are deposited in manure and hatch and develop into infective larvae (typically within 4–5 days), the risk of animals ingesting parasites is minimised. Rest periods between grazing allow time for parasite larvae to die off, further reducing infection pressure. This system also encourages healthier animals, more resilient pastures, and can reduce reliance on chemical dewormers. 

Overall, pasture rotation in sheep and goats is a cost-effective, sustainable practice that enhances animal health, optimizes forage use, and supports long-term pasture and flock productivity. 

Transferring knowledge from research to practitioners can be challenging. Demonstrations and network meetings are great tools to bridge this gap. Here, we share some key tips and tricks to organize a successful meeting and facilitate knowledge-exchange on sustainable worm control (SWC) practices.  

Connect the topic to themes that matter to the audience - From our work in the SPARC project, we learned that interest in worm control can be low in some sectors. To spark interest, we found it helpful to link SWC meetings to other topics perceived as more interesting, e.g. grassland production, other infectious diseases, or antimicrobial resistance.  

Tailor invitations to boost attendance - How participants are invited can also influence attendance. We found that farmers, for example, are more likely to come if the invitation comes from someone they know and trust. Word of mouth and clear, targeted communication can make a big difference in boosting the attendance rate. 

Discuss the timing with the audience - Scheduling matters and can vary depending on the group that is addressed. As such, it’s important to consult the audience about the best time for the meeting. If in-person meetings are challenging, organizing online sessions can also be considered. Our experience shows that online meetings often attract more participants, but for hands-on learning, face-to-face meetings are generally more effective. 

Encourage discussion alongside presentations - To enhance learning, opportunities for interaction beyond lectures should be created. This can be informal, such as including a light lunch or extended coffee breaks, or more structured, such as moderated group discussions, farm visits, or demonstrations. Having a moderator during these sessions is helpful to ensure all participants, including quieter ones, feel comfortable contributing and asking questions. 

To improve the return-on-investment of organizing meetings or demonstrations, it is important to be well-prepared!

When treating animals, you are only targeting the parasites that are causing performance loss at that moment in time, but there are many parasites out on pasture. Reducing exposure of naïve livestock to these parasites can help reduce disease and the need for intervention, saving money, improving performance and prolonging the effectiveness of the wormer remedies.  

Traffic light grazing involves mapping pastures on your farm in terms of risk. This is a self-assessed map that can be done using a white board, a mental note or there are even some software apps that could work. 

Younger, first season grazing animals are fairly naïve and they suffer the effects of parasites more easily, also shedding a larger number of eggs in their dung. In the start of the season, turning these younger animals out to low risk, green pasture is the preferred option. As they graze, the pasture should be marked amber and the young stock should not return to these pastures in the first half of the season.  

Using a combination of good stockmanship, laboratory results, performance monitoring and veterinary advice, we can make a call on the level of contamination and how this will affect the risk for the next grazing in rotation. If we conclude that we have a high volume of eggs being deposited out on pasture, we mark the pasture as being red.  

As animals are excellent at building their own immunity to many parasites, they need to gain some exposure. If weather conditions are good, animals are not under stress and are hitting their expected performance, then we can introduce them to amber pastures. 

The Wormenwijzer (Worms Guide) is an online tool that provides advice on responsible management of gastrointestinal worms in sheep and helps minimizeand prevent disease and growth loss due togastrointestinal worms. ​

For each flock of ewes or lambs grazing together, youcan get tailored advice for each moment byanswering a series of questions about grazing andtreatment history. Based on the answers, advicefollows with practical measures to be implemented. ​

The tool also provides advice when bringing in breedingrams, breeding ewes and lambs or introducinganimals from third parties.​

The Worms Guide provides detailed information andguidance on dosing, grazing management, safe land,manure testing and results, worm species and theirpathologies.​

The Worms Guide is part of the Wiki Wijs met Wormen,which also includes instructional videos, farmprotocols and background information.​

The Worms Guide was recently updated by WageningenUniversity & Research and the Faculty of VeterinaryMedicine at Utrecht University in cooperation withLTO. The tool aims to minimize the use of syntheticdeworming agents while preserving growth, animalhealth and animal welfare.

• Wormenwijzer Schapenhouderij

Farmers and vets often face challenges in determining when worm control is truly necessary. Some treat their herd regularly despite low infection levels, while others delay treatment even with high parasite burdens. An efficient worm control plan at the farm level requires ongoing consultation with a professional who specializes in parasite epidemiology and has in-depth knowledge of the local farm conditions. This level of expertise and customization demands significant time and resources.

Over the past decade, research has shown the benefits of targeted treatment approaches based on diagnostic information to improve economic performance while minimizing the need to use wormers. Wormwize® translates recent research into a user-friendly online tool, combining diagnostic results with farm management data to generate tailored worm control reports specific to each farm. 

After uploading the required information, end users will be able to download a report including three sections: (i) General risk score, (ii) Potential annual costs due to worm infection (€) and (iii) Control options. Specific costs of the report can be found at: https://wormwize.eu/pricing/ 

• Wormwize homepage
• How does Wormwize work?

Worm infections are a significant cause of disease and represent one of the ​​​​most substantial production-limiting factors in ruminants. ​​To assess the possible presence of worms in your farm, you and/or your vet can perform a diagnosis by collecting your animals faeces and sending them for parasitological analysis to a laboratory.   

To collect the animal faeces, ​​​​specific protocols have been developed by Kaplan, 2023. Without the correct application of these protocols, the diagnosis may be distorted and the result may be incorrect. 

​​​​​But Diagnosis is easy! By following the developed protocols, you can collect the animal faeces yourself in an inexpensive way. You can then discuss the analysis results with your veterinarian to define an adequate treatment for your animals if necessary. Diagnosis is the best way to treat animals correctly; sample collection is the basis for a good diagnosis.  

• Best practise for faecal sampling in sheep and cattle