project - Research and innovation
Sustainable Parasite Control in Grazing Ruminants
Contexte
Ruminant farming is critically important in maintaining the viability of rural communities and ensuring food security. As grazing ruminants are constantly exposed to helminths (parasitic worms), effective worm control is essential to ensure their health, well-being and productivity. Currently, parasitic worm control relies heavily on the preventive use of drugs called anthelmintics. However, this intensive use has led to anthelmintic resistance, meaning that the drugs have little or no effect on some parasitic worms. This phenomenon, which is on the rise, has become a global threat to parasite control in grazing ruminants. To remedy this while safeguarding both financial feasibility and the health of animals, one promising approach is to reduce the use of anthelmintic drugs in grazing ruminants by adopting sustainable worm control (SWC) practices. Nevertheless, given the diversity of animal species and types of production, climate and farm management conditions, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, and choices concerning SWH practices must be well thought out and suited to the specific conditions.
Objectives
The SPARC Community of Practice of farmers, farm advisors and veterinarians will 1) Identify needs, practices, barriers and drivers for adoption of Sustainable Worm Control (SWC) practices; 2) Develop a list of good practices for SWC in different production systems and regions; and 3) Demonstrate them on pilot farms.
Overall, existing and newly developed national and international stakeholder networks will share SWC practices across borders and production systems (beef and dairy cattle, meat and milk sheep and goats). Dissemination of experiences and results will be facilitated by a Knowledge Exchange Platform on the SPARC website, hosting testimonies, case studies, videos, practice abstracts and decision support tools, available in local languages.
Overall, SPARC will initiate a lasting European-wide multi-actor community that develops solutions together to curb anthelmintic resistance, aiding in the green transition of European agriculture.
Activities
- Creation of networks and a community of practice
We will first develop procedures to bring together various types of stakeholders involved in sustainable parasite control in various settings and foster learning, knowledge sharing, and the development of skills amongst these stakeholders. Concretely, we will start by identifying and involving national/regional/local networks of stakeholders involved in sustainable parasite control in various sectors (cattle, goats and/or sheep) in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Italy, the UK, Ireland and Poland. If these network structures are missing, we will help to set them up. Once the network structures are established and the relevant stakeholders “connected”, we will actively encourage learning, knowledge sharing and skills development within the networks, creating a community of practice (CoP). - Identification of needs, good practices, stimulating measures
Within the CoP, we will identify the needs of farmers, veterinarians, and other stakeholders to achieve sustainable worm control (SWC) practices in small ruminants and cattle in different epidemiological and management settings through qualitative approaches (mainly interviews and focus groups) and will translate those needs to good practices for SWC and critically assess them. Finally, we will validate the perceived and actual feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the suggested good practices through literature review and interviews/surveys with end-users. - Validation, demonstration of good practices
Goof practices for SWC will be demonstrated in several settings (ca. 10 farms/setting). To improve their adoption, stimulating measures will be used. We will also collect feedback from end-users to adapt the SWC practices. In addition, we will validate the feasibility, effectiveness and economic return of SWC practices. - Creation of tools, materials, Knowledge Exchange Platform
In order to make the practical advice produced in SPARC available to farmers, farm advisors, veterinarians, and more, we will create an attractive, easy-to use, interactive, multi-lingual online knowledge exchange platform (KEP) dedicated to SWC practices on the SPARC website (European level). This KEP will include a variety of SWC best practice documents (e.g. fact sheets or practice summaries, videos, webinars, ...) aimed at practitioners. Additionally, we will collect secondary data (from e.g. litterature and other projects) and generate a data hub and a WebGIS on helminth infections, anthelmintic resistance and worm control practices. - Dissemination, communication, exploitation
Finally, we will ensure a large scale dissemination of the best practical solutions identified, boost their uptake and also develop a plan to ensure that the network activities will be sustained after the completion of the SPARC-project.
Project details
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Type of Horizon project
- Multi-actor project - Thematic network
- Project acronym
- SPARC
- CORDIS Fact sheet
- Project contribution to CAP specific objectives
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- Protecting food and health quality
- Fostering knowledge and innovation
- Project contribution to EU Strategies
- Reducing the use of antimicrobials for farmed animals and in aquaculture
EUR 2 538 180.88
Total budget
Total contributions including EU funding.
EUR 2 538 181.88
EU contribution
Any type of EU funding.
Project keyword(s)
1 Practice Abstracts
Worm infections are a significant cause of disease and represent one of the most substantial production-limiting factors in ruminants. To assess the possible presence of worms in your farm, you and/or your vet can perform a diagnosis by collecting your animals faeces and sending them for parasitological analysis to a laboratory.
To collect the animal faeces, specific protocols have been developed by Kaplan, 2023. Without the correct application of these protocols, the diagnosis may be distorted and the result may be incorrect.
But Diagnosis is easy! By following the developed protocols, you can collect the animal faeces yourself in an inexpensive way. You can then discuss the analysis results with your veterinarian to define an adequate treatment for your animals if necessary. Diagnosis is the best way to treat animals correctly; sample collection is the basis for a good diagnosis.
Geographical Location
Italia
Additional information
Protocols to collect and store faecal samples (Kaplan, 2023)
Faecal sample collection
- Wear a pair of clean gloves
- Take a container (bag or a glove) and collect the samples
- Individual faecal samples should be collected directly from the rectal ampulla in sheep and goats or through the rectal exploration in cattle.
- Irrespective of the total number of animals present on the farm, 20 samples must be taken: 15 from adult animals and 5 from younger animals.
- Each rectal faecal sample should weigh a minimum of 5g, with 10g being preferable.
- Samples should be placed into separate containers (bags or gloves) to ensure that an identical weight is obtained from each animal when the samples arrive at the laboratory (1,2,3,4).
- It is important to avoid collecting faeces in direct contact with soil, as the latter may contain eggs or larvae from free-living nematodes.
Faecal sample storage
- Samples should be delivered to the laboratory on the same day they are collected, with transport conditions ensuring that the temperature remains below 10°C.
- If immediate analysis is not possible, samples can be stored at refrigeration temperature (+4-8°C) for up to five days (6).
- If analysis is delayed beyond five days, the faecal samples should be vacuum packed in plastic bags or stored anaerobically (5) and kept in the refrigerator (6) for up to three weeks to prevent fungal growth.
Faecal samples must be accompanied by a fact sheet containing relevant farm information (such as management practices, grazing patterns and anthelmintic treatments), which will assist the veterinarian in interpreting the parasitological report.
