Boehringer Ingelheim, the distributor of the Bionic Plus controlled release anthelmintic capsule, has announced the adult sheep product will probably not be available for lambing in 2023.
“Farmers need to begin planning now,” says Dr Ginny Dodunski, experienced sheep veterinarian and manager of the Beef + Lamb New Zealand-funded Wormwise programme.
“There are plenty of farmers around New Zealand who get great ewe performance and excellent lamb weaning weights without the use of any pre-lamb worm treatment for ewes – but the key to this are ewe body condition and feed planning.
“Getting this right for lambing starts the day you wean.”
Last year, issues with the Bionic Plus Hogget capsule saw this product recalled, and an extended meat withholding period applied to sheep already treated with the capsule. While investigations are continuing, it appears the capsules were not releasing product at the correct rate.
Boehringer has advised vets that out of an abundance of caution, it is ‘highly unlikely’ that either capsule will be available in 2023.
“While there are other long-acting products available, the unavailability of Bionic Plus could be an opportunity for farmers to look at a ‘reset’ of their breeding flock management,” says Dodunski.
“We know from previous trial work that the factor that comes closest to explaining why some farms see big responses to capsules is feed on offer at lambing.”
She says this is something that farmers have some control over.
“It’s a mix of lambing date, stocking rate, autumn and winter sales policies, grazing management and fertility,” Dodunski explains.
“However, you can’t wake up on July 10 and decide to increase the amount of grass on offer at lambing – this process starts now and relies on hitting appropriate pre-winter feed targets and then managing that feed through to have good covers to set stock multiple ewes onto.”
She adds that many farmers do a really good job of this do a lot of juggling in the second half of the winter to aggressively aim for those targets while still feeding their multiples well in late pregnancy.
“Also, the cost-benefit of treating skinny ewes with long-acting products is typically bigger than that of treating wellconditioned ewes. So, if we can minimise the number of light ewes in the flock at lambing, we’ll have better outcomes and can get away from relying on whole-flock longacting drench products to prop things up at lambing time.”
Dodunski advises farmers to identify ewes that are under body condition score (BCS) 3 to 3.5 at weaning.
“Giving them extra feed over summer is the beginning of this process.”
