Free online tool helps interpret faecal egg count results
© AdobeStock/Phoebe Farmers can use a free online tool to interpret faecal egg count (FEC) results for roundworms in sheep.
FEC Check has been developed by parasitologists at Moredun Research Institute.Â
FECs are easy to perform, but translating the results into management decisions can be challenging, and extracting the information applicable to individual situations from industry resources can be time-consuming, says Moredun’s Dr Lynsey Melville.
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FEC Check displays the clinical effect of results using a traffic-light coding system.
Users input FEC results, which then appear on a graph: green indicates low-level infection, not requiring treatment, and red indicates treatment is likely to be needed.
The gradient is based on advice from Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep.
Efficacy testing
As well as using FEC Check for regular monitoring of samples to help target treatments, an efficacy testing mode indicates the reduction in roundworm eggs after treatment and what this means practically.
Testing can highlight the early stages of anthelmintic resistance, at which point actions such as targeting treatments and grazing management can be taken.
However, Dr Lynsey Melville points out that treatment failure is not always a result of anthelmintic resistance.
FEC Check incorporates a reliability checklist of administration and testing issues that can also result in treatment not working.
FEC Check is available at app.moredun.org.uk/fec