BioWorma: What is it?
Hopefully, you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year. The reality of a new year is upon us and we wonder where all the time went. With all the new technology that inundates our lives, time seems to be speeding up and it is harder and harder to keep up. As such, my new years resolution is to slow down and enjoy the small things in life.
I foresee the newest sheep and goat product in 2019 will be the fungus, Duddingtonia Flagrans. It is a biological control tool for internal parasites that feeds on parasite larva in the fecal pellet. This fungus has been proven to reduce the number of larva that escape the fecal pellet and onto the pasture by 60 to 90 percent for cattle, sheep, goats, and horses. This naturally occurring fungus already exists at some level in your pastures, but animals do not ingest enough on their own for it to be effective.
An Australian company, International Animal Health Products, will market the product under the trade name, BioWorma®. The product has been approved for use in most states in the US, including Texas. Distribution of the product in the US has not been completely worked out. It is unclear when the product will make it to a feed store near you. Tell your local feed store about it and ask them to make it a priority. If they have questions, refer them to the websites below or they can contact me.
For the fungus to be effective, the product must be fed to livestock daily. It travels through the digestive tract and works in the fecal pellet. It is recommended to feed this to susceptible animals, such as females during late gestation and lactation as well as growing lambs and kids. It is also recommended to use the product just prior to or during the peak parasite season, which is typically, March through June in the majority of sheep and goat producing regions of Texas. It can be fed during other periods of the year and to all classes of livestock; however, it may not be economical to feed it to all livestock, year-round.
THIS PRODUCT WORKS TO PREVENT PARASITES. IT DOES NOT AFFECT THE INTERNAL PARASITES THAT CURRENTLY EXIST IN THE ANIMALS!!!! WORMY ANIMALS NEED TO BE TREATED WITH AN EFFECTIVE DEWORMER.
BioWorma® will be marketed to feed dealers who will add it to supplements and potentially minerals. The fungal spores cannot survive heat and pressure that results from pelleting; therefore, it will not be in breeder cubes or cooked molasses tubs. Livamol® with BioWorma® are trade names for the product that will be sold as a feed additive that ranchers can use to top dress other feeds.
More information about Duddingtonia Flagrans can be found online at: https://www.duddingtonia.com/, https://www.wormx.info/, or https://www.bioworma.com/.
BioWorma® is not likely to be the silver bullet for parasite control. But it does have the potential to be an integral part of Texas sheep and goat producer’s arsenal of parasite control tools.
To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576. For general questions about sheep and goats contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office. If they can’t answer your question, they have access to someone who can.