A common pasture plant could help foraging ruminants ward off damaging gastrointestinal nematodes, like barber’s pole that can cause illness and death, US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report in the Gisborne Herald. Animal scientist Joan Burke at the ARS Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Centre in Booneville, Arkansas, along with colleagues at several universities, has patented formulations of Sericea lespedeza, commonly referred to as Chinese bush clover.

The plant was introduced in the United States in the 1930s to minimise soil erosion. Adding the patented dry hay and pelleted forms of this plant to animal feed thwarts the reproductive cycles of gastrointestinal nematodes that are in the digestive tracts of goats and sheep. It is particularly effective in controlling the barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus contortus), a nematode that attaches to the animals’ abomasal (true stomach) wall and feeds on their blood. Female worms can produce more than 5,000 eggs per day that are shed in the animal’s manure.

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An improved test for parasitic barber pole worms in sheep has been developed in the US. Researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Georgia made the breakthrough in tackling the parasite which causes hundreds of millions of dollars in losses every year to the global sheep and wool industryreports Rural News. The test is already available and allows a faster, easier and less expensive way to test for the presence and quantity of Haemonchus contortus worms that are highly pathogenic to sheep, goats and llamas.

The new lectin staining test is based on a peanut extract that binds to eggs of the parasite and can be easily visualized with a microscope using ultraviolet light. It’s an improved version of previous technology developed by scientists in Australia that was slower, less effective, more expensive and required more advanced training to perform, the researchers say.

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