Parasites That Are Detrimental Cattle Health and Methods for Best Parasite Control

This research had two objectives: One to determine which parasites were most detrimental to beef cattle's health, reproduction and productivity. The second was to test two cattle dewormers to eliminate parasites in cattle. With research, specific parasites were targeted, classified and grouped by how each parasite class relied on the beef cow and their damaging costs. The two dewormers tested was Pfizer's Dectomax injectable versus a generic form of Ivermectin pour-on. This research was conducted on 96 head of Angus calves around 6 months old. These calves were processed through a chute and randomly sorted into treatment groups. Weights were taken on day 1 and day 26. Each calf was assigned a method of parasite control and calves randomly placed into three groups: Control, Dectomax injectable or Ivermectin generic pour-on. Results found the internal nematodes to be the most detrimental to beef cows and the Generic Ivermectin pour-on to be the most effective dewormer determined by the calves weight gain during the period. In conclusion, all parasites cost cattle producers a substantial amount of money annually and the Generic Ivermectin pour-on was superior the control group by 8 pounds and Dectomax injectable by nearly 12 pounds.