Helping sheep farmers to maximise productivity by sustainably controlling parasites

The SCOPS Principles

1. Always make sure any treatment you give is fully effective.

2. Try to reduce your reliance on anthelmintics using management options and monitoring where possible.

Using FECs / video / video
Treatment of adult sheep
Grazing options
Planning ahead
Nutritional effects
Breeding sheep

3. Avoid bringing in resistant worms and/or other parasites by following a robust quarantine routine.

4. Minimise the selection for worms that are resistant to anthelmintics when you treat sheep.

Options for dose and move / video
Using products with persistent action
Dilution effects
Using the group 4 and 5 products mid/late season

SCOPS for UK sheep farmers

SCOPS is an industry led group that works in the interest of the UK sheep industry. It recognises that, left unchecked, anthelmintic resistance is one of the biggest challenges to the future health and profitability of the sector.

The SCOPS group was formed to develop sustainable strategies for parasite control in sheep, facilitate and oversee the delivery of these recommendations to the industry and ensure that new research and development is incorporated to refine and improve advice given to the sheep industry.

SCOPS includes representatives from a wide range of industry organisations – logos and links are below. The equivalent organisation for cattle is the Control Of Worms Sustainably (COWS).

SCOPS messages for spring/summer

Use faecal egg counts (FECs) ahead of worming lambs

'Test don't guess' when it comes to controlling worm burdens in lambs this spring and summer.
Consider leaving a proportion of a group untreated
Never move treated lambs straight onto 'clean' grazing.
Use a post-drench FEC to check your wormer has worked.

Choose the right product and deliver it correctly

Use the SCOPS Know Your Anthelmintics Groups guide to understand which products belong to which group, and take advice on what group is most suitable for your flock when.
Use that product correctly – weigh animals, calibrate the drench gun/use the correct drenching technique, or use the correct injection technique.
At all times of the year, only use a combined worm and flukicide product if both are required.

Find out more about a new scab project in England

Could you be involved in a cluster in the North West, South West or Midlands? Free blood testing and one-to-one advice available for participating farmers.
Watch this space for updates as the two-year project progresses, including how it relates to initiatives in other parts of the UK.
Click here for more.

News

Later-born lambs and northern facing slopes at greatest risk in very different nematodirus year The Nematodirus Forecast provided by the Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) group has being proving invaluable to vets, advisors and farmers, in what has been a slow-but-steady year of risk for 2021-born lambs.... 18^th May 2021 Read More

SCOPS Nematodirus Forecast

High risk to Northern England and upland flocks

ALERT! Several serious outbreaks of nematodirosis have been reported by Farm Post Mortems Ltd in the last few days. Sheep farmers in upland areas need to be aware that there is a very high risk to six to eight-week-old lambs.

The photo has been supplied by Ben Strugnell of Farm Post Mortems, showing visible mature nematodirus worms.

1^st June 2021

Updated SCOPS Technical Manual

The recently updated SCOPS Internal Parasite Technical Manual is available on this website in a new format, which allows access to all sections using a navigation tree, including links to additional documents. This means users can access the information they need quickly and easily and, when sections are updated, they will be flagged, enabling users to keep abreast of developments in SCOPS science and practice.

Reference: Stubbings, L., Bartley, D., Busin, V., Lovatt, F., Page, P., Rose Vineer, H., Skuce, P. (2020) SCOPS Technical Manual. http://dx.doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/SQA4E

14^th January 2021 Read More

SCOPS Steering Group Members