Cold weather may slow down pests, but parasites are a different story.
Veterinarians say now is not the time to let up the gas on deworming.
“So, as we move into the winter season, the key external parasites that dairy producers need to be on the lookout for are lice and mange mites. The lice that we worry about, there’s biting lice and sucking lice. The biting lice tend to feed on debris, skin, hair, and secretions that are on the skin’s surface, whereas those sucking lice can attach to the cow and feed on blood. The mange mites typically will live around the tail head and the hindquarters. The one that will see most often, particularly in dairy cattle, is chorioptic mange, and we also sarcoptic mange that can be a bit more severe, but it’s far less common than chorioptic,” said Dr. Jennifer Roberts, a professional services veterinarian with Boehringer-Ingelheim.
Roberts says whatever the parasite may be, they all will have an impact on your bottom line.
