Isolation of oxfendazole resistant Cooperia oncophora in cattle

A field strain of Cooperia oncophora resistant to oxfendazole was isolated from a commercial cattle rearing property in Waikato, New Zealand. Resistance to oxfendazole was assessed by means of a faecal egg count depression test and an in vitro egg hatch test. This is the first documented case of anthelmintic resistance in Cooperia spp. and the first report of anthelmintic resistance in cattle in New Zealand.     

A new approach to managing health in Swine operations

It is proposed that just as the stethoscope and thermometer are fundamental tools for individual medicine, production and health recording systems are fundamental tools for effective population medicine. Treatment and control of clinical diseases as the primary objective is no longer considered appropriate for livestock population. Disease in populations now describes a deviation between what is happening and what is expected to happen. This redefinition of disease implies that it is of multifactorial origin and thus a different problem solving approach must be implemented. Therefore, a swine enterprise must be considered as a system, a set of interdependent components continuously interacting to produce pork. As a system, it is characterized by certain properties: change, environment, counterintuitive behavior, drift to low performance, interdependency, and organization. A redefinition of diseases implies also that they are not only “treated” but managed. Management consists of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and analysis. For this process to be implemented successfully, a goal-directed recording system providing a farm-based infrastructure for problem solving is essential. Clinical problem solving (diagnosis) is thus based on epidemiological and demographic methods.