The wet weather has brought a big sheep scours outbreak in the South East, according to Virbac-sponsored farmdisease.co.uk, the disease monitoring website. Using July information from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), the service says that Gut Worm Scours (PGE) in sheep in the region hit around six times normal levels (compared with the last four years).

Livestock vet Jonathan Harwood of Stock 1st in Sussex, a member of XLVets which supports the website, said: “This summer has turned into parasite heaven. The wet conditions, with no drying out to postpone hatching, have meant high larval survival on pasture, and high uptake by lambs. They have brought forward the normal October peak by a couple of months”. While most commercial farms are so far on top of the outbreak, smaller farmers may not be so fortunate. A particular problem is Haemonchus - the ‘Barber Pole worm’. “The Barber Pole doesn’t alert the farmer through diarrhoea unlike other worms,” warns Jonathan.

In these conditions, Jonathan’s advice is to keep worming until the grass stops growing, and to be on the lookout for resistance to some wormers, like white drenches.