The Fluke Life Cycle
The Liver Fluke Life cycle usually starts with rain events in late Summer early Autumn. This season the stage was set early with the early break. Liver Fluke need an intermediate host, a small native water snail to develop, it simply can’t develop without these. It is in paddocks with watercourses, lagoons, low lying swampy areas where water sits for an extended period, that enable the snail to thrive. However the snail also happily lives of the edge of troughs or under the float cover! The Snail is a hardy survivor and can emerge from under the ground after years of dry once conditions become favorable.
Many Clients do not test for Fluke and simply miss these infections and put losses down to other factors. Fluke have never adhered to a line on a map – you may be very surprised where they turn up – particularly after flooding events.
We strongly recommend testing at least one mob for Fluke when getting a WEC (Worm Egg Count) preferably from a mob that has been running in the wettest parts of your property over late Autumn to early Winter.
Fluke are quite easy to treat and break their life cycle, if you know they are there. It just comes down to the right drench selection.
Our Testing Method and when to Test
We use a sedimentation method to test for Fluke, it is a highly sensitive test. It picks up Fluke eggs from Adult Egg laying Fluke – not immature fluke so it pays to test a couple of times through the winter. The life cycle is quite a long one so start testing for fluke 10 to 12 weeks post those late summer early autumn rain events. Under normal conditions we suggest testing May through to September. This year has started a few weeks earlier as we have been seeing positive fluke tests from mid March. We have been testing for Fluke since 2008 and the years that spring to mind as bad Fluke years are 2010, 2016 2021 through to 2024. The 2025 fluke season started early as some areas received summer storms that got the life cycle underway.
