To continue to build on its role of providing practical advice for sheep farmers, vets, prescribers and advisers, the Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) group is offering two free-to-attend webinars in mid-July.

Vets, Registered Animal Medicines Advisers (RAMAs), Suitably Qualified Persons (SQPs) and other advisers are invited to a midday question and answer session on Wednesday 19th July 2023, with the session to be repeated at 7.30pm with a focus on farmer attendees.

Kevin Harrison, SCOPS Chair and Gloucestershire farmer will chair both sessions. He says:“Worming lambs with an ineffective treatment is a waste of precious time and money, not to mention the negative impact on finishing times/weights. I am looking forward to these two Q&A sessions focussing on how to use faecal egg counts to check worming treatments are fully effective.

“Both sessions will be suitable for attendees throughout the whole of the UK, although the information provided will include looking at the worming treatment check that farmers in England can currently get funding for via the Defra Animal Health & Welfare Pathway.”

The two webinars will be provided by SCOPS with support from Biobest, with independent sheep adviser Lesley Stubbings speaking on behalf of SCOPS and Rebecca Mearns speaking on behalf of Biobest Laboratories and the Sheep Veterinary Society. Both speakers will provide general information and answer questions from attendees.

While the two sessions will cater for the specified audiences, if any individual is unable to attend at the allocated time, SCOPS is happy for advisers to attend the farmer session and vice versa.

Mr Harrison continues: “With Lesley Stubbings’ expertise in the field and Rebecca Mearns’ knowledge of how faecal egg counts are processed in the lab and reported back to farmers and advisers, the two sessions have a great line up. I encourage you to sign up now and think in advance about any questions you’d like to ask. I’m a strong believer that there’s no such thing as a stupid question, and you can always type in a question anonymously if that makes you more comfortable!”

Both webinars are free to attend, but require pre-registration via www.scops.org.uk.

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