Obviously both here and overseas consumers don't want to, and in today's competitive environment we cannot afford to produce meat like this.  It does somewhat shatter our clean green image!!!

Sheep measles is not someone else's problem, it is all of ours, whether we breed replacements or buy in lambs.  As producers of some of the best meat in the world we have responsibilities.

Sheep measles is caused by a dog tapeworm (Taenia ovis). The sheep eat the tapeworm eggs that are on the  pasture and cysts then develop in the muscle of the sheep. If this meat is then fed uncooked or unfrozen to a dog the adult tapeworm develops in the dog's gut . This maturation takes about 35 days and the adult tapeworm then starts to produce eggs that are passed in the dogs faeces onto the pasture for the next sheep to ingest, thus completing the cycle.

The real disaster is the number of eggs that a tapeworm can produce - up to 250,000 per tapeworm/day and a dog can have two or three adult tapes at any one time, thus one dog could contaminate the pasture by 750,000 eggs per day .

The only way to maintain control of sheep measles is to have an integrated control programme as below

• Only feed dogs cooked meat or offal heated to a core temp of 72 degrees to ensure all cysts are killed( as a rule of thumb meat should be brown throughout with no tinges of pink), or meat that has been frozen at -10 degrees Celsius for 7 days
• Clean up dead sheep quickly and put into dog proof offal holes,
• Beware of the pet Labrador or Jack Russell who has the freedom to roam and scavenge and can be a major source of sheep measle eggs.
• Treat all dogs on the property monthly for sheep measles to break the 35 day tapeworm lifecycle. For the general good health of your dog team we also recommend that all adult dogs are treated with an allwormer treatment that also kills roundworms every 6 months.
• Make sure you include treating the pet dogs and the dogs living in rented cottages.
• Ensure all visiting dogs of contractors, casual staff and friends have been treated in the last month.

Remember 1 dog pooh  = 750,000 eggs

Join the Vet Services tape worm control programme and we will automatically mail to you or your staff your monthly worm tablet requirements, including timely all-wormer treatments.

With regards the tablets noted above: DO NOT COLLECT THEM FOR MONTHS UNUSED IN THEIR PACKETS IN THE KITCHEN,TRUCK OR OFFICE - USE THEM.