Prolonged drought conditions, lice chemical resistance and poor bio-security and management practices from landowners have been blamed for widespread infestations.

Simon Flick from Boorowa Landmark said the prevalence of lice infestations is at its most alarming levels in decades. He says drought conditions and buying and selling sheep has lead to lice transmission, where lice move from infested sheep to clean sheep when the sheep are in direct contact with each other.

“I have been here for 21 years and it is the worst I have seen it,” Mr Flick said.

“Because of the drought people’s numbers were down, so they had to buy sheep in so there was a big introduction of sheep into the district. A lot more people have been buying and selling sheep than they had before,” Mr Flick said.

“[Lice] can discolour the wool and make it mat up. You can lose up to $1.50 in kg in the price as well as some loss in weight.”

Mr Flick said lice chemical resistance to backline Insect Growth Regulators (IGR) is a factor in the current infestation levels in sheep, but says it is landowners’ application of chemical treatment is also to blame.

“The long use of backline and the backliners are starting to break down and or incorrectly applied. There is a little bit of [chemical] resistance and it is probably not being applied correctly.”

It is estimated sheep lice cost NSW sheep producers about $123 million per year in treatment costs and lost production.

Woolgrowers throughout the Boorowa region are being urged to attend an upcoming information seminar about how to tackle the dramatic increase in sheep lice infestations. Further information about the seminar will be published in an upcoming edition of the Boorowa News.