6th February 2023
SCOPS is aware of a few reported cases where an overdose of closantel has led to blindness in the affected animals.
The safe use of animal medicines relies on all the instructions for use being followed as per the label - and a key issue is ensuring animals receive the correct dose. As with all products, animals need to be dosed with closantel according to their weight.
Current industry advice is to dose with a wormer or flukicide to the heaviest in the group. However, because of the risks posed by overdosing with closantel, SCOPS urges sheep farmers to split a group if the weight variation is large, grouping sheep into weight bands and altering the dose rate accordingly.
Closantel is an active in Supaverm™ and Flukiver™, Solantel™, Closamectin™and Closiver™. A full list of products for the treatment of internal parasites in sheep can be found here.
For further information on dosing and full product details, please refer to the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPCs) on the VMD product database. If you do suspect an adverse reaction to closantel in treated animals, please report it to VMD using the online link.
