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Impacts, Trends and Sustainable Solutions
Infections with parasitic helminths (nematodes and trematodes) represent a
significant economic and welfare burden to the global ruminant livestock
industry. The increasing prevalence of anthelmintic resistance means that
current control programmes are costly and unsustainable in the long term.
Recent changes in the epidemiology, seasonality and geographic distribution of
helminth infections have been attributed to climate change. However, other
changes in environment (e.g., land use) and in livestock farming, such as
intensification and altered management practices, will also have an impact on
helminth infections. Sustainable control of helminth infections in a changing
world requires detailed knowledge of these interactions. In particular, there
is a need to devise new, sustainable strategies for the effective control of
ruminant helminthoses in the face of global change. In this paper, we consider
the impact of helminth infections in grazing ruminants, taking a European
perspective, and identify scientific and applied priorities to mitigate these
impacts. These include the development and deployment of efficient, high-
throughput diagnostic tests to support targeted intervention, modelling of
geographic and seasonal trends in infection, more thorough economic data and
analysis of the impact of helminth infections and greater translation and
involvement of end-users in devising and disseminating best practices. Complex
changes in helminth epidemiology will require innovative solutions. By
developing and using new technologies and models, the use of anthelmintics can
be optimised to limit the development and spread of drug resistance and to
reduce the overall economic impact of helminth infections. This will be
essential to the continued productivity and profitability of livestock farming
in Europe and its contribution to regional and global food security. View
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