Economic and Production Repercussions of Deworming by Pulse Release Device and Oral Suspension in Grazing Double-Muscled Fattening Cattle

In this field trial, the repercussions of 2 administration forms of oxfendazole, namely a single administration of a front-loaded device (group 1; n = 18) and a repeated administration of a 90.6 per cent oral suspension (group 2; n = 18), were compared in first season-grazing double-muscled fattening bulls. The comparison was based on the production performances, the mean worm egg counts and the product- and labour-costs. The daily body gains determined on the whole trial period, i.e. 1.312 +/- 0.055 kg and 1.270 +/- 0.056 kg for groups 1 and 2 respectively, and mean worm egg counts per gram (on days 0 and 130:200.0 +/- 44.3 and 94.4 +/- 27.4 for group 1; 366.7 +/- 98.4 and 100.0 +/- 33.6 for group 2) did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, the total costs were lower with a front-loaded device (1,021 Belgian Francs) than with oral suspension (1,248 Belgian Francs per bull).