The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has released early recommendations from a Cornell University team evaluating a parasite control strategy for barber pole worm, a major cause of death in sheep and goats.
Haemonchus contortus – the stomach parasite commonly known as barber pole worm – is a major cause of death in small livestock and has become increasingly resistant to traditional anthelmintic – deworming – treatments.
“Many North Country sheep and goat farmers already report barber pole parasite resistance to multiple conventional deworming medications,” says Betsy Hodge, livestock educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County.
With funding from the farmer-driven NNYADP, Drs. Michael L. Thonney and tatiana Stanton with the Cornell Sheep and Goat Program and Dr. Dwight Bowman and Janice Liotta of the Cornell School of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology worked with North Country livestock producers and Hodge to test the use of copper oxide wire particles, or COWP, as a deworming method for sheep and goats.