Liver fluke infection causes significant mortality and production loss in sheep on wet pastures. Prevention and treatment are central to welfare management on at-risk farms.
Liver fluke causes acute and chronic welfare impacts in sheep. Acute fasciolosis from migration of large numbers of juvenile flukes through liver tissue causes severe pain, liver haemorrhage, and rapid death. Chronic disease involves insidious deterioration over months with poor body condition, weakness, and anaemia. Strategic treatment with appropriate flukicides at the right time of year, combined with drainage of wet areas and pasture management to reduce snail habitat, prevents most clinical disease.