Episode 179
For the Love of Goats
Have you ever heard someone talk about parasite resistance in goats, only to have someone else start talking about dewormer resistance? Although they sound similar, they’re describing completely different things.
In this first official Goat Note, Deborah explains three concepts that every goat owner should understand:
- Parasite resistance – A goat’s ability to limit the number of parasites living inside its body.
- Parasite resilience – A goat’s ability to stay healthy and productive despite carrying a parasite burden.
- Dewormer resistance – The worms’ ability to survive treatment with a deworming medication.
Understanding the difference isn’t just about using the right terminology. These concepts affect breeding decisions, parasite management, and how we preserve the effectiveness of the dewormers we still have available.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why parasite resistance and resilience are not the same thing
- How parasite-resistant goats help reduce pasture contamination
- Why resilient goats can still shed large numbers of parasite eggs
- Why dewormer resistance is a problem with the parasites—not the goats
- How confusing these terms can lead to poor management decisions
Goat Note Takeaway
Parasite resistance and parasite resilience are traits of the goat. Dewormer resistance is a trait of the worms.
Once you understand that distinction, many of the recommendations you hear about breeding, parasite control, and selective deworming become much easier to understand.
If you enjoyed this Goat Note, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future short episodes where Deborah breaks down one goat question, one common misconception, or one research-based concept in about 10 to 15 minutes.
Resources
- Learn more about parasite management at Goat Worms: A Complete Guide to Winning the War in Your Pasture
- Explore the Parasites in Goats course at Goats365.com.
- link to previous parasite episodes …
- Episode 113 – Pasture Management for Parasite Control
- Episode 95 – 5-Point Check for Parasites
- Episode 6 – Natural Parasite Control with Lespedeza
- Episode 153 – Dewormer Resistance: A Goat Owner’s Experience
- Episode 68 – New Goat Dewormer Guidelines
- Episode 24 – Using Dewormers Correctly
- Episode 114 – Goat Worms: Myths and Misunderstandings
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Transcript
Deborah Niemann 00:01
Welcome to today’s episode. Before we jump in, I want to tell you about something new we’re doing here. Most weeks, you hear me talking with veterinarians, researchers, professors, goat business owners, and other experts from the goat world.
00:14
But every other week now, I’m going to be sharing a goat note — a short episode where it’s just you and me. We’ll tackle one question, one misconception, or one research-based concept that every goat owner should understand in about 10 to 15 minutes. Around here, we don’t just ask what worked; we ask why it worked. Because when you understand the science behind your decisions, you are equipped to make the best choices for your own goats, so let’s jump into today’s goat note.
00:45
Welcome to goat note number one: parasite resistance, resilience, and dewormer resistance. These are three very different things, but unfortunately, people confuse them all the time. Today, we’re talking about these three words that sound similar, but they mean very different things. Understanding the difference can change how you choose breeding stock, how you manage parasites, and even how you think about dewormers.
01:07
You might have heard people say that they want parasite-resistant goats. Another person says that goats aren’t resistant; the worms become resistant to dewormers, and that sounds kind of similar. But these are two completely different things that people are talking about. Not understanding the difference between these different types of resistance and resilience will cause people to make poor breeding decisions, misuse dewormers, misunderstand research, and even misunderstand each other when they’re trying to talk about worm problems in their herd.
01:36
First, let’s talk about parasite resistance. A parasite-resistant goat is one that is able to limit the number of parasites that survive and reproduce inside its body. It’s not something that it does consciously. It’s just something about that goat’s genetics. That means that there are fewer worms in its body. Whenever you do fecal egg counts, they’re usually going to be pretty low, which also means that they’re going to shed fewer eggs onto the pasture.
02:03
Resistance protects not only that goat, but also helps reduce pasture contamination, which also protects your other goats. Like I said, it is genetic, so this is the type of thing that you can breed into your herd. Usually, these animals will have kids that are also resistant, which can be helpful in the long run. However, it’s important to note that no goat is 100% resistant, and so they’re still not going to have zero eggs, but they will have very low egg counts.
02:31
So the difference between a goat that is resistant and one that’s not is that these two goats could be living together, grazing the same pasture. You do fecal egg counts on them. One has 200 or 300 eggs per gram. The other one has several thousand eggs per gram. So that first goat with only a few hundred eggs per gram is the one that is more parasite resistant.
02:55
Now let’s talk about parasite resilience. A resilient goat may have a lot of worms, but they stay healthy anyway. So that’s the goat that’s got 2,000 or 3,000 eggs per gram, but they are fat and happy and healthy. They’ve got beautiful, bright pink or red eyelids. Their body condition is fantastic. They’re pooping normal goat pebbles. Everything looks great. If it’s a milker, she’s maintaining excellent production, doesn’t become anemic, and continues to perform normally.
03:25
This time, let’s imagine two goats with exactly the same fecal egg count. Let’s say they both have 1,000 or 2,000 eggs per gram. One is bright and happy. It’s eating. The eyelids are dark pink or red. It’s producing plenty of milk. The other one is pale, anemic, it’s weak, it has bottle jaw, it’s losing weight. Exactly the same number of eggs, same parasite burden, but a very different outcome. The difference is resilience. That goat that is healthy with 1,000 or 2,000 eggs per gram is resilient.
04:00
Resilience is valuable, but resilient animals may still contaminate the pasture with lots of eggs. Some people think that you only want animals who are resistant, meaning that they’re going to always have very low worm counts, and that may be the right answer for some people, but not necessarily everyone.
04:21
I personally don’t know if my goats are resistant or resilient. I just know that I only need to deworm two or three goats every year, and maybe it’s because they don’t have a lot of worms, or maybe it’s because they’re just very resilient. But either way, it’s working for me. Now, if you have a problem, then the answer for you may be different.
04:44
Now let’s talk a little bit about dewormer resistance. This is where people start getting confused. Dewormer resistance is not about the goat at all. It’s about the worms. It’s about the worms on your farm, not the worms in a single goat. The worms start to survive treatment with a dewormer because their genes have allowed them to survive the drug. And the more you use that drug, the more that those surviving worms have babies who also have the genetics to survive treatment with that drug. So just like your goats can have the genes to survive a heavy worm load.
05:24
Some worms can have the genes to be able to survive treatment with a specific dewormer. So, in the case of dewormer resistance, the goat is not resistant. The dewormer just isn’t working anymore on the worms because they’ve evolved. So that’s why you don’t want to overuse dewormers. You always want to make sure you’re using the correct dose, and you never want to do whole herd treatments because when you do that, you’re just increasing the number of worms that are resistant to the dewormer.
06:01
So this is a topic for another day, and it’s also one that we’ve talked about extensively in some of our other podcast episodes with vet professors and researchers. And we will put a list of our other parasite episodes in the show notes. So I quickly want to pull all of this together for you.
06:22
Parasite resistance is a trait in the goat that means they have fewer worms. Parasite resilience is also a trait that the goat has, which just means that they tolerate worms better. They can have lots of worms, but they are still fat and happy. They’re not anemic. They’re still producing lots of milk and doing well.
06:42
Dewormer resistance is a trait that is in the worms, which allows the worms to survive treatment. So when someone says they’re breeding for resistance, that’s a good thing. When someone says their farm has dewormer resistance, that’s a bad thing. Same word, but a completely different problem and a completely different meaning.
07:02
So resistance in your goats — good — but resistance in worms — bad. So your big takeaway for today is that parasite resistance and parasite resilience describe the goat. Dewormer resistance describes the worms.
07:18
In a future goat note, we’ll talk about why fecal egg counts don’t always tell you whether or not a goat needs to be dewormed — a topic that builds directly on what we’ve discussed today.
07:28
And that’s it for today’s show. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to hit the subscribe button so that you don’t miss any episodes. To see show notes, you can always visit fortheloveofgoats.com, and you can follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/lovegoatspodcast. See you again next time. Bye for now.
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