Parasites in Goats by Deborah Niemann

Do you …

• deworm goats on a schedule?
• inject dewormers?
• give a dewormer to goats before moving to a new pasture?
• rotate dewormers?
• deworm the whole herd at one time?

If you answered YES to ANY of these questions, keep reading! Research has shown that ALL of these practices ultimately lead to dewormer resistance, which means that eventually none of the dewormers will kill parasites on your farm — and that means the parasites can kill your goats.

Parasites have been cited as the #1 cause of death in goats. If you’ve had goats for any length of time, you’ve probably had to deal with them at some point. Unfortunately, the Internet is filled with tons of old information! Practices from 10 or 20 years ago are still being used today, even though the latest research has shown that those practices lead to dewormer resistance.

So, where do you get the most up-to-date information? You can’t subscribe to all of the scientific journals. You may not be able to get a farm sitter, which means you can’t travel to attend conferences. That’s why I created this online course — and no, this is NOT about what I do. This course is about the latest research on parasites in small ruminants.

Like all my books and courses, this will NOT be a one-size-fits-all recipe for dealing with parasites. I believe in educating people so that you can become the expert on your goats on your farm. Because I teach college, I’ve been able to look up the latest research in scholarly journals, using the databases at the university. I’ve also contacted researchers personally to get more information about their studies. And I’ve attended multiple conferences to hear them talk about their research first hand. Then I traveled around the country, creating videos and narrated PowerPoints with the scientists on the front lines of parasite research. I’m bringing the conference to you! Who have I talked to?

• Joan Burke, Ph.D. — Dr. Burke is at the USDA research center in Booneville, AR, and if you asked me who authored more studies than any other that I’ve read, I’d say it was Dr. Burke. She is especially interested in alternative dewormers, and she authored a lot of the studies that used copper oxide wire particles as a dewormer.
• Steve Hart, Ph.D. — I’ve seen Dr. Hart speak at several conferences over the years. He is at Langston University, which has its own goat research center. He was kind enough to read and review the parasite chapter of my book, Raising Goats Naturally, and provide technical feedback so that I could be sure that it contained the latest research-based information. A couple of years ago when we were both speaking at a conference, I asked him during a break if he knew how many fecals he’d done in his life, and he said that he had done 3,000 in the previous summer alone!
• James Miller, DVM, Ph.D. — Dr. Miller is one of the leading parasitologists in the world. He is a professor emeritus in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University, and he is active in parasite research and working with student researchers.
• Alison Martin, Ph.D. — Alison is the director of the Livestock Conservancy, and she did her doctoral research on how genetics affect a sheep or goat’s resistance to parasites.