Black scour worm

Description: This film, deals with the prevention and control of the black scour worm, a parasitic worm which occurs in sheep, cattle, goats and rabbits.The infection is usually picked up in the autumn when feed is short, and symptoms occur in winter: a wet autumn and a dry winter is particularly dangerous. The film stresses that whilst it is almost impossible to eradicate the infection, it is possible to control it to such an extent that economic loss is prevented. The importance of drenching early, when the sheep are fat, is stressed; breeding ewes should be drenched before lambing, especially before autumn lambing, so that the lambs do not become heavily infected; lambs should be drenched at weaning; drenching should be done fairly regularly every four to five weeks from autumn until spring, the wetter the season the more frequent should the treatment be. The film ends by stressing that pastoralists should try to check the growth of the black scour worms long before the sheep show any symptoms of the disease. Narrated by Bob Pollard.