ABOUT THIS MANUAL

This manual has been produced in response to demand from animal health professionals for a simple and clear set of advisory notes to help them in their task of reducing the costs that worm diseases cause to the livestock owned by Kenya's farmers.

It is designed for use by Animal Health Assistants, vets, livestock production staff and others working to advise farmers in disease control, be they in the employment of the Government of Kenya, the NGO sector or working privately.

At present, farmers and advisers tend to rely heavily on the use of drugs to control helminth problems in the flocks and herds under their care. However, the use of drugs should properly be only one weapon in our armoury. By integrating other methods of control, often alongside occasional drug treatment, the costs of control can be reduced and the loss of production caused by the worms alleviated.

However, not all control methods are appropriate to every farm. A good adviser needs to take into account the unique features of each farm that can be used to help in the control effort. In this manual we have tried to list the likely features found on farms in different parts of the country and a menu of the different methods of control that may be appropriate. We leave it to each individual adviser to use his or her knowledge of a particular farm to help the farmer to choose the appropriate methods to incorporate into the farm's worm control programme.