Arndt, Saskia

Bestman, Monique

Ferrante, Valentina

GRILLI, GUIDO

Gunnarsson, Stefan

Göransson, Lina

Haas, de, Elske

Niekerk, van, Thea

Rodenburg, Bas

Organic Eprints

Monique Bestman*, Thea van Niekerk, Lina Göransson, Valentina Ferrante, Stefan Gunnarsson, Guido Grilli, Elske de Haas, Bas Rodenburg, Saskia Arndt*Louis Bolk Institute, NLGut parasite infections and free‐range use inorganic laying hensWhy talk about gut parasites in laying hens?Gut parasites found in 70-100 % of ORG/FR-flocks (Jansson et al., 2010; Kaufmann et al., 2011; Thapa et al., 2015)Gut parasites may cause• Reduced health/welfare by itself or as a vector• Increased feed conversionUse of anthelmintics may lead to• Residues in eggs and environment• Resistance in parasites, making anthelmintics less effectiveRisk factors for gut parasites• Contact with manure or litter inside hen house (Permin et al., 1999; Jansson et al., 2010)• Previous flocks (Permin et al., 1999; Jansson et al., 2010)• Free-range?? Wild birds? Earth worms?Free-range is essential part of organic productionParasite eggs survive >2 years (Thapa et al., 2017)Free-range: risk or part of prevention/solution?Free-range use and gut parasitesStudy How many flocks included Country Prevalence parasites (=ascarids) in relation to free-range Bari et al., 2020 307 hens in 9 exp flocks Australia No differences between hens withdifferent ranging patternsSibanda et al., 2020 9,375 hens in 5 comm flocks Australia Rangers more often infected than stayersGrafl et al., 2017 79 Austria Ascaridia ORG/FR > barnHeterakis ORG/FR < barnThapa et al., 2015 50 8 EU countries Earlier pasture access less AscaridiaSherwin et al., 2013 19 UK Higher % hens out less parasitesMore m2 FR/hen less parasitesJansson et al., 2010 169 Sweden ORG/FR = barnPermin et al., 1999 16 Denmark ORG/FR > deep-litterResearch question: is there a relation between parasite infections and …• Intensity of range use• Anthelmintic treatments• Health, % of lay at 60 weeks, % mortality till 60 • Range management: shadow, adding litter or soil cultivation top 10 cmParasitological parameters for soil and manure1. Proportion of samples being positive for ascarids2. Mean number of ascarid eggs/gram sample material3. Proportion of samples being positive for Capillaria4. Mean number of Capillaria eggs/gram sample material MethodsTotal 40 flocks in Sweden, Netherlands and ItalyOrganic since > 10 yearsSampling if hens > 45 weeks old and > 3 months range accessSampling as long as possible after anthelmintic treatment6 soil samples at 5, 20 and 50 m from hen house7x10 outdoor droppings > 50 m from hen house7x10 indoor droppingsMcMaster protocol for worm egg countsFlock information (mean)Number of flocksAll40Sweden10NL20Italy10Genotype1 brown9 white17 brown3 white6 brown1 white3 otherHens/farm 11,714 19,435a 11,496ab 4,430bHens/flock 3,384 6,186a 2,771b 1,770bAge of FR in years 16 18 15 14Age of hens in weeks 62 66 62 60% Hens out - farmer 51 31a 48a 76bResults (1) Exact results will be available after publicationFeel free to ask m.bestman@louisbolk.nl to keep you informed whenthe full paper is available for sharing. Limitations of this study• Large differences between• countries in prevalence, genotypes, deworming• and within flocks parasitological parameters• Small sample size (10-20 flocks/country)No(t able to detect) relations between parasites and …• Range use• Deworming• Health & production• Range managementDiscussion (1) Prevalence of parasitesManure• Prevalence of ascaridscomparable with otherstudies(Thapa et al., 2015; Permin et al., 1999; Sherwin et al., 2013; Grafl et al., 2017)• Prevalence of Capillariacomparable with otherstudies (Jansson et al., 2010; Grafl et al 2017; Permin et al., 1999; Wuthijaree et al., 2017)Discussion (2)Soil• 1st study Capillaria in free-range soil• Few ascarid eggs in soil, while others found 100 % (Heckendorn et al., 2009)• Litter 2700 eggs/gram (Maurer et al., 2009)Risk of free-range relatively lowDeworming, health & productionDeworming• Statistical vs practical significance: prevalence in Dutch/Italian flocks• Parasite free 1 or 2-4 week(s) after deworming (Tarbiat et al., 2016a; Höglund and Jansson, 2011) • Less parasite eggs after tailor-made approach (Tarbiat et al., 2016b)Relation parasite eggs with health & production• No relation with mortality (Gauly et al., 2008; Sherwin et al., 2013; Wongrak et al., 2015)• No relation with production (Gauly et al., 2007; Sherwin et al., 2013)Discussion (3)Management of the free-rangeOur study:• Too few eggs in soil; Capillaria eggs only in Italian soil• Soil treatments not evenly distributed across locationsOther studies• Naturally infected soil: no effect of mowing (Heckendorn et al., 2009)• Experimentally infected soil: ascarid eggs disappeared faster from gravel and wood chips, than from soil (Maurer et al., 2020)Discussion (4)Conclusions• Ascarid and Capilliaria infections widespread• Nearly no ascarid eggs in soil, high prevalence Capillaria eggs in Italian soil• Free-range risk relatively low compared to indoor conditions?• Effectiveness of current deworming practice?• Relation parasite eggs with health & production?Room for tailor-made approaches aiming at reduced use of anthelminticsm.bestman@louisbolk.nlThis project was funded by CORE Organic Cofund project ‘FreeBirds’ (2018-2021)Questions?

Gut parasite infections and free-range use in organic laying hens

https://orgprints.org/40057/1/210422%20Gut%20parasites%20and%20free-range%20use%20-%20Public%20version.pdf

Gut parasite infections and free-range use in organic laying hens

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