Many gamekeepers find they’ve barely finished the shooting season when it’s already time to think about preparing for next year’s birds. With day old chicks arriving as early as May, there’s plenty to do, from getting pens ready, to ensuring heat lamps are serviced but this year there might be something new to add to the list.
Last year, new legislation was introduced under the Veterinary Medicines Act which means that the licensed wormer Flubenvet 2.5% 240 gram pack can no longer be sold by vets or merchants unless they have gone through a registration process and it cannot be sold to commercial keepers unless they are also approved by the VMD.
For some large scale operations that won’t present a problem, either because they have registered or because they use Flubenvet pre-mixed medicated feed to worm their birds. Smaller scale users may find that they have to use Flubenvet 1% 60 gram pack which contains enough wormer for around 20 chicken sized birds.
Medium sized enterprises are advised to contact their animal health adviser to discuss the best strategy. It’s never been more important to treat for Gapeworm in particular – a parasite that could be on the increase in free range poultry as well as game birds – and to use a product of known efficacy. Where the same pens are used for rearing every year, Gapeworm becomes an increasing risk due to worm eggs accumulating in the soil.
Game birds are traditionally wormed at 3, 7 and 11 weeks particularly with a view to controlling Gapeworm and other parasitic worms. The most common signs of gapeworm are ‘snicking’ which is associated with difficulty breathing due to the worms living in the windpipe. Other parasitic worms can lead to poor weight gain leading to different sized birds, or even sickly birds and poor feed conversion which can lead to escalating feed costs.
For further information or to request free leaflets on worming game birds and the administration of Flubenvet® please contact Janssen Animal Health on 01494 567555.
Further information
1. Medicated feed supplements that need to be mixed in greater than 30 Kg of animal feed (schedule 5 products), can no longer be supplied to veterinary practices, pharmacists or animal health retailers for them to sell unless they register as approved distributors of schedule 5 products – category 8 on the ‘Register of Approved Retailers Premises’. Most retail outlets do not register as category 8 distributors because they do not sell significant quantities of these products and there is also a cost involved in registering as a category 8 distributor that makes it unattractive to most merchants.
Registered retailers are also only able to sell medicated premixtures for mixing into more than 30kg of feed to commercial customers who are specifically registered with the VMD to mix these into animal foods. There is an exemption to sell to domestic producers who have no commercial benefit from their enterprise.
Flubenvet® 2.5% Medicated Premixtures contains 2.5% w/v flubendazole.
Flubenvet® 1% Medicated Premixtures contains 1% w/v flubendazole
For further information contact Janssen Animal Health, 50-100 Holmers Farm Way, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP12 4EG Tel 01494 567555 Fax 01494 567556 Email: ahealth@jacgb.jnj.com
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