Think twice on drenching

SHEEP producers are being urged to bring their drenching programs into the 21st century, with at least 90 per cent of Australian farms resistant to one or more single active drenches.
Ancare Australia recently launched a dual action oral drench, known as Sequel, and is advising those graziers who want to improve their drench efficacy to take the step up from a traditional single active product, to the new dual action drench.
Ancare Technical and Strategic Projects Manager, Mark Doherty, said studies had shown that using combination drenches such as Sequel could significantly delay the development of resistance.
“Right now it’s not at all uncommon for some single active drenches to have no practical impact on worms at all: you may effectively be pouring money down the drain,” he said.
“Sequel’s ready-to-use combination of abamectin and levamisole makes it an effective dual combination for use in drench programs in the place of a single active drench.”
He said Sequel is a more effective, affordable alternative to traditional single active drenches and would bring improved drench performance.
“It is a cost-effective way of achieving high efficacy, thereby maximising production and returns from your livestock,” he said.
“Rather than relying on one active ingredient alone, Sequel allows producers to continue to benefit from all of the attributes of abamectin – a fast acting, broad spectrum ML that treats inhibited stages of roundworms – with the added potency of levamisole, which has good efficacy against Barbers Pole Worm.”
Ancare Australia Marketing Manager, Jack Bree, said Sequel was also easy to use.
“Sequel has an easy flow formulation that goes through ordinary oral drench guns. The dose rate of 1ml/5kg bodyweight has the same dose rate as traditional drenches.”
He said Sequel performed well when tested under Australian conditions.
“Trials show Sequel has very good efficacy against all major internal sheep parasites, including Barber’s Pole Worm (Haemonchus contortus) Small Brown Stomach Worm (Ostertagia circimcincta) and Black Scour Worm (Trichostrongylus spp).”
In these same nation-wide trials, Sequel repeatedly outperformed single active drenches such as moxidectin (including Cydectin), levamisole (including Nilverm) and abamectin drenches (including Virbamec), as well as BZ/levamisole combinations, for efficacy against the black scour, small brown stomach and Barber’s Pole Worm infections.
Sequel is available in five-litre backpacks and 15 litre drums exclusively at Ruralco stores across Australia.