March 14, 2024

First ever oral lice treatment for sheep now registered in New Zealand

Flexolt® is the first ever oral lice treatment for sheep, giving farmers the ultimate flexibility when it comes to treating their flock. The world-first product can be used on both sheep and lambs*, with any length of wool, revolutionising how and when producers can administer a sheep lice treatment.

Flexolt contains a novel active ingredient that works systemically from the inside out. Lice control is therefore not affected by length of wool. This means producers have the flexibility to treat off-shears, short- and long-woolled sheep and lambs with a single, oral dose.

As part of its development, Flexolt has been extensively trialled to prove its effectiveness across different sheep operations, locations and wool lengths. As well as delivering excellent lice control performance, Flexolt has a high safety margin and many management benefits; giving farmers a number of really good reasons to switch to Flexolt this season.

Traditionally, lice treatment has been strongly linked to shearing for the most effective lice control**. Flexolt offers producers a choice in their annual lice treatment program – treat at shearing or find another time. This provides flexibility for the farming calendar and helps minimise common management challenges such as labour, weather and time.

Split shearing is common practice and often leads to lice outbreaks. This is because separately treated mobs have the potential to spread infestation between them throughout the year. Now, all management mobs can be treated at once, regardless of wool length. Newly purchased sheep can be treated and quarantined from the rest of the flock without the need to shear them prior to treatment.

Flexolt also provides farmers with solutions to common challenges that can affect externally applied lice products. It is unaffected by rain helping to minimise possible application delays, lambs at foot can be treated regardless of wool length and the odd poorly shorn sheep can be treated effectively without reinfesting the flock.

Flexolt is a low dose oral treatment. There are 555 x 60kg sheep doses per 5L pack! With more doses in a single container compared to other lice products, Flexolt makes transport, storage and disposal easier for farmers – like the rest of the Coopers range, Flexolt packs can be recycled through your local Agrecovery collection centre.

Critical to its effectiveness and successful lice control, is ensuring that all sheep are treated at the same time. To aid this, each 5L pack of Flexolt will come with a crayon marker and handy neoprene sleeve to enable each sheep to be marked as it is drenched ensuring any animals slipping past the drencher can be identified and treated.

Every sheep flock is likely to have a lice outbreak at some point, but Flexolt gives producers more control over the way they manage lice. This innovative new product will help make on-farm processes more efficient and increase the health of flocks across the country.

Flexolt is now available so talk to your local vet clinic about getting yours today. Now is ideal timing for those whom wish to control lice on farm in advance of lambing, before next seasons lamb crop adds complexity and more animals to treat.

For more information visit: www.flexolt.co.nz

*Lambs from 6kg body weight
** Ideally time treatment to coincide with shearing of the majority of sheep on a property as treatment off-shears will achieve optimum lice control. As Flexolt can be used on sheep of any wool length, ensure all other unshorn sheep are treated at the same time.