The Sioux Nation Podcast
The Sioux Nation Podcast
Managing Internal Parasites to Optimize the Genetic Potential of Your Cattle Herd
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On the Sioux Nation Podcast today, we are doubling down on deworming practices. The process of deworming livestock can be traced to the 1800's. Yet new findings presented by Dr. Joe Dedrickson of Huvepharma are showing the positive results of doubling up to improve efficacy and avoid resistance.
Welcome back to the Sue Nation podcast, where we explore the story, science, and challenges shaping the livestock industry today. I'm your host, Jill Funky. Joining us is Dr. Joe Diedriksen from Huve Pharma Animal Health. Thanks for returning to our program. Well, it's always fun to be here and help you guys. Deworming livestock is not a new concept. So with the invention of the microscope, scientists really learned a lot about life cycles of parasites and how livestock become infected. Those early products, they could be really effective, but they could also really be toxic to animals and to people. And so science has brought advances in different classes of products, which has really helped set the stage for routine dewarming practices now. But in the last 30 or 40 years, parasite resistance has become quite the issue, and it's motivated the adoption of a more targeted approach. And efforts to breed for greater genetic parasitical resistance, precision livestock technology that identifies specific animals needing treatment, and also things like pasture management practices like grazing systems and biological control of parasite larvae and the manure. That has all been studied. But dollar for dollar, really, we see that the practice of deworming is one of the best investments that producers can make. Now, with that all in mind, Dr. Diederson, you're going to walk us through the newest resistance lowering practices that have shown some great results in recent studies and trials. So are you ready? I'm ready. Okay, then let's jump in. So, Dr. Diederson, can you speak to the serious problem that product resistance has been?
SPEAKER_00I sure can. You know, when Ibamec was approved in 1984, it was like the miracle drug. It took care of all worms as well as lice and manes and this sort of thing. And it becomes so popular, become widely used and only thing used for quite a few years. And when you stay with a single product like that, the worms uh that we're dealing with today, they've been away around here for thousands of years. And the reason they've been able to survive, they can adapt to very effective programs like the Ivermectins brought in. And we had like 25 years where it was a miracle drug. Then in about 2002, uh, we got our first cases of resistance. And hereby today, resistance is pretty routine in most all of our operations. And it can be very confusing to producers on that when you look at egg count, because we know the brown stomach worm costs us all of our losses, but the intestinal worm like Cuperia increases the eggs. Uh, so a lot of people have become uh very confused on that, and then they give a dewormer that they think is the best one in the world, and it doesn't hardly do anything.
SPEAKER_01Then what would you like to say about the practice of incorporating multiple products into a dewarming plan?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this was a new concept that Dr. Ray Kaplan at the University of Georgia started doing all the work about 15 years ago after we'd started dealing with resistance for about 10 years. And what he found is um that if you used a combination of drugs from two different classes of products, and we'll get into that in a minute, but even if both of them were resistant, other words not doing a good job cleaning out the worms, that putting those two mechanisms together, they become highly effective. It's kind of like one plus one equals five, not two on it. So it's giving us a way to manage resistance by going to combinations.
SPEAKER_01So then I have to ask, what are the combinations that you recommend?
SPEAKER_00Today, our kind of preface that the one that we see the most combinations is um like an ivermectin product and a white warmer like safeguard. Uh very effective combination. We as a company have another product called levamosol, the trade name is prohibited and so you have three different classes of drugs, those ivermectin type of class, the whitewormer class like a safeguard, or the leavosol class like prohibit. And so by doing two different classes, that's the important thing in the combination. So good combination is like an ivermectin product and prohibit, because that's two different classes, as well as like an ivermectin type of product, along with a white warmer like fenbendazole. So you have a couple of real good combinations there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, can you explain a little bit about the different classes that you just mentioned of the dewarming products?
SPEAKER_00That one is um one that quite frankly has confused a lot of producers and for that matter, a lot of veterinarian like myself, when you start seeing it. The one group of drugs we call them the macrocyclic lactones. That's the ivermectin type drugs like ivermect, decomax, and sidectin. They're all of that ML class. And then we have another class called the whitewormers that are benzomidazols. And you have two products there in safeguard and valbazin. And then the third class is uh half the time I can hardly pronounce it myself. It's I met the thiazol. Now, did you get all that? Kind of, but please don't ask me to spell it. Yeah, that's the one, and I never pronounce it right either, that prohibit and rumatel are in. So you have three effective classes, and the important thing is when you're using combination, is use a drug from two different classes.
SPEAKER_01So I know that, and we've been really looking forward to looking at some of the data from a recent Mississippi State study that compared Juve Pharma tools to what's been used as a standard in the industry. What would you like to share from that data?
SPEAKER_00I'll go over that study a little bit because it did a good job of pointing out several important things. First of all, there were four groups of calves in there, and we did a fall-borne spring wean group, and then we did a springborne fall wean group of calves. So we had from both uh calving times that are common in the industry, and each time when we did the spring study and the fall study, the four groups we had was one group with no drug at all. And we use that group to verify that we got a significant load of uh worms in the cattle. Then we did one group with just straight like an ivermectin type of drug by itself, and that helped us illustrate that, hey, we did have resistance because the single group only took care of about 50% of the worms. And then the other two groups were the one that we see fairly commonly in the southeast, that's like safeguard in the ivermectin type of products on it. And since that was a common one used, then we wanted to show producers that they have more than one option if they're not satisfied with their current program. And the fourth group was our drug prohibit, which is levamosol, another class. And we compared them, and what it showed us we had significant resistance in these calves, both the fall wean and spring wean. And but when we went to combinations, both the combinations were very effective in treating the calves that were showing resistance to just a single class. So producers have uh more than one option of combinations. Of course, I'm a little biased. We sell Prohibit and agromectin and ecomectarine. Uh, so it's an excellent product, but the rest of them are also good. Important thing is, like this study, you do have combinations and they give you the best performance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, can you tell me how this these combinations have helped lower resistance and maybe what improvements have been seen?
SPEAKER_00How that works, you know, you'd look at a total population of worms on a pasture and in a group of cattle, and when you're using that single product and you find out that it's just not working very good. Well, when you go in with the combination, increase that effectiveness, many times it takes a clear back up to a 95% effectiveness level. And by doing that, you're reducing overall worm load, and you're specifically getting rid and uh decreasing the population of resistant worms.
SPEAKER_01We were just talking about this back at Two Nation Ag Center with some of the sales staff, and we know that deworming is a good investment. We we we know this, but we were talking about some actual specific dollars. So could you talk about the costs associated with the losses that producers can can see due to non-treatment or ineffective deworming products and strategies?
SPEAKER_00Uh sure can. You know, there's multiple opinions what the cost is to the industry is a total. And more recently, with calves being worth three, four dollars a pound or more, uh, the estimates that the losses due to parasitism and specifically worms probably is over a billion dollars annually. When you look at uh what's the weaning cap is the easiest one to look at data, but based on the trials that have been done, that it's anywhere from two tenths to a half a pound a day. And you know, if you have a hundred-day grazing period like that, we're talking about 20 to 50 pounds increased gain. And at four dollars a pound, that's a lot of dollars there. It's it's a maintenance thing you don't want to overlook.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So sacrificing a few thousand dollars for what probably amounts to a few dollars of treatment per animal.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the thing we often overlook though is what's that cost in your body condition on the cow? How quickly does she breed back, and what percentage of calf crops? So even though we think of housing the calf, it really is important in that cow also.
SPEAKER_01And it has more long-term ramifications. Well, this is very enlightening. Um, Dr. Diedriksen, is there anything else that you would like to share with us or that you want our listeners to know?
SPEAKER_00Well, the thing that's real important is that understand how to use the products and use them correctly and how they work. Don't get lost in the idea is one product is Ibamec better than Decomax or Sidectin or is Levisol uh or Prohibit better and safeguard. The important thing for you guys to take home today is understand the difference in the classes, understand how they work, and more importantly, how to use them correctly. Don't get lost in this idea that one is better than the other, because I think if you were to learn how to use them correctly, you can make a lot of products uh work very effectively, even though uh, you know, I may have a little bias today because we make a product called Prohibit and we have an ivermectum product. Uh but the whole issue to you is learn how to use them all correctly, because you can do a very effective job with multiple drugs.
SPEAKER_01Very good sentiment. And as always, if any listeners or producers out there want some advice, we've got technical experts and veterinarians that could help with some of those understanding, just like just like what you were mentioning. Well, thank you, Dr. Dietrichson, for taking the time to share with us all that latest data and talk about, yeah, doubling up or doubling down, I guess, on dewarming products. I appreciate that. Again, thank you for having me on. Absolutely. And I'd like to thank our listeners for tuning in. We'll catch you next time with more guests and topics related to the current ag climate.