Page 2 - Parasite Control - Liver Fluke, The Facts

PAGE 2 Please refer to the disclaimer on the last page regarding informaton in this leafet.

Introducton

Liver fuke disease or fasciolosis is a parasitc disease of grazing animals caused by a fat worm (Fasciola hepatca) and
is economically important in catle, sheep and goats.

Liver fuke disease causes annual losses estmated to be around €2.5 billion to livestock and food industries worldwide,
and is estmated to cost at least €90M to the Irish industry. Economic losses caused by liver fuke are mainly associated
with a decrease in meat and milk producton. Depending on the degree of infecton, liver fuke may cause a reduced
meat producton of up to 20% in catle and up to 30% in sheep, and a reducton in milk producton of up to 8% in
cows. Fertlity can sufer and beef catle afected by fuke may take an extra 80 days to reach market weights. Losses
also occur due to the number of livers condemned in meat plants as up to 50% of livers may be condemned.
Severe infecton may cause death due to anaemia in young animals, partcularly in lambs. Liver fuke can occasionally
result in sudden death by triggering certain clostridial diseases of catle. More recently, evidence has emerged that
liver fuke infecton and may also exacerbate other infectous diseases such as salmonellosis and Tuberculosis. The
prevalence of liver fuke infecton has increased up to 12-fold in certain EU Member States (including Ireland) during
recent years.

Life cycle

Animals are infected by ingestng encapsulated larvae (metacercariae) on contaminated grass. Typically, individual
farms will have wet “fukey areas” that should not be used or grazed at tmes of the year when metacercariae are
likely to be present, i.e. late summer to winter (depending on climatc conditons). However, catle and sheep ofen
graze on such areas. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that liver fuke infecton is absent from any area of Ireland.

Figure 1: Liver fuke life cycle