Ovine cysticercosis in the Albany region of Western Australia. 2. Trial control program

The effect of a program to control Teania ovis cysticercosis was investigated on 32 adjacent farms at Mt Manypeaks in Western Australia. Farmers were advised not to feed dogs any raw sheep meat or offal and they were supplied with sufficient cestocide to treat all their dogs every 2 months. Other aspects such as the need for control of the movement of dogs and the correct disposal of offal from home killing of sheep were discussed and recommendations made. The success of the program was determined by recording the incidence of Cysticercus ovis in lambs born on the farms and killed at a local abattoir, and the incidence of T. ovis in dogs on the farms. Before the trial 6.9% of lambs were infected with C. ovis and 11 of the 32 farms had a T. ovis infected dog. The C. ovis incidence figures fell to 2.8%, 0.5%, 1.8% and 0.3% for the four years of the trial, and only 1 dog, a recently introduced puppy, was found to be infected with T. ovis. The results are discussed and reasons for the success of the program as a whole and apparent individual farm failures are discussed.