Prevention of external parasites

• Conduct a thorough physical evaluation of animal at least once weekly.
• Run your hand over each animal’s hair coat, visually inspecting for excessive hair loss, flakes of loose skin, areas of skin irritation, and any crusty lesions or bumps that might indicate infection with an external parasite.
• Immediately separate and place any animal that shows sign of parasite infection or seems to be unthrifty. This helps to reduce the chances of passing infection on to the rest of animals. Quarantined animals should not be mixed with the main flock until treatment is complete and the parasite eradicated.
• Isolate newly introduced animals and treat them for external parasites before mixing them with other animals.
• If external parasites are seen on an animal, it should be treated immediately to prevent transmission to others.
• Practice good sanitation habits. Clean animal houses regularly.

i. Seal with cement or mud all cracks in the floor and walls of livestock housing.

ii. Remove grass/plants around the barn.

iii. All litter and discarded wool must be collected and burnt or deposited out of animal contact.

• Spray housing with an appropriate pesticide every two weeks if possible.
• Farmers should also be aware of ways to reduce the number of ticks on pasture.

i. Rotate the land where livestock graze.

ii. Avoid pasture which has many ticks as long as possible Chickens can be kept in places where there are many ticks, for example around watering places, etc.

• Control by good animal hygiene

I. Shearing of sheep regularly

ii. Shearing and wetting/washing animals regularly with detergents effective especially against lice

iii. If the above measures are not effective, treat the animals with appropriate pesticide.