Advice on an integrated approach to endoparasite management
© Tim Scrivener Managing endoparasites, including worms, fluke, and coccidia, remains a persistent challenge for UK farms that directly affects animal welfare and profitability.
As resistance to anthelmintics – and understanding of their environmental impact – grows, the need for an integrated approach to parasite management becomes ever more urgent.
Advances in technology offer new opportunities for farmers and vets to tackle these challenges, making monitoring and management more precise, efficient and informed.
See also:Â Advice on developing a worm control plan for sheep
About the author
Becca Dodd is a vet at Yan Farm Health. She has particular interests in transition cow management, infectious disease control and sheep.
Here, she explains how farmers can build more resilient systems by adopting an integrated approach to endoparasite management.Â
By understanding how each component of parasite control feeds into a broader strategy, farms can make better informed decisions that benefit both livestock and business outcomes.
Principles of parasite management
Successful management of parasites rests on these three pillars:
- Assessing parasite burdens within animals
- Implementing pasture management
- Prudent use of pharmaceuticals.
Together they form a robust framework for sustainable disease control.
Technological advances in diagnostics can make the first pillar – assessing the presence of parasites – more accurate and accessible.
Improved diagnostics directly inform the other principles, allowing for more targeted pasture management and rational medicine use.
Diagnostic methods
While faecal sample analysis remains the primary approach for monitoring parasite burdens, diagnostic equipment powered by artificial intelligence is helping to automate egg identification and counting.
Such systems produce rapid, species-specific results with minimal sample preparation and operator input, significantly increasing throughput and accuracy.
A correct sampling technique remains essential for obtaining meaningful results – resources, such as Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep and Control of Worms Sustainably, provide guidance to ensure best practice.
As well as speeding up detection, advances in diagnostics create a foundation for more precise and timely performance monitoring.
When farmers and vets have accurate, up-to-date information about parasite burdens, they can respond proactively, rather than reactively.
Performance monitoring
A shift from routine treatment to routine monitoring is now possible thanks to enhanced diagnostic tools and digital data capture.
While faecal sampling remains important, early warning signs of parasitic disease often appear as subtle declines in animal performance, such as reduced growth rates or lower body condition scores.
Electronic identification systems integrated with weigh cells and cloud-based software enable farms to collect individual animal data such as weights and condition scores and compare them against industry benchmarks.
However, collecting farm results into a simple spreadsheet can allow for much of this data analysis to be done.
Implications for farm management
By systematically collecting and analysing performance data, farms can identify trends, inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
This approach fosters a culture of evidence-based management that not only enhances professionalism but also helps meet the increasingly stringent demands of major retailers.
For vets and advisers, understanding the pressures faced by modern farms means we can better guide clients toward strategic investments in technology, ensuring that animal health, business performance, and compliance targets are all achieved.
Early disease detection and timely treatment
One cattle rearer used monthly automated weight records (from arrival to finish) to detect a subtle drop in daily liveweight gain (DLWG) between six and seven months of age (from 1kg/day to 0.85kg), despite no changes to nutrition (see graph).
Prompt investigation and diagnostic testing revealed a lungworm outbreak, allowing for timely treatment and preventing further decline.
Later, another performance dip at 10 months of age (DLWG 0.3 kg/day) highlighted the impact of adverse weather, enabling the farm to adjust management plans for future batches.
By integrating diagnostic results with performance data, farms gain a powerful tool for early disease detection and targeted intervention.
Implications for farm management
By systematically collecting and analysing performance data, farms can identify trends, inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
This approach fosters a culture of evidence-based management, which not only enhances professionalism but also helps meet the increasingly stringent demands of major retailers.
For vets and advisers, understanding the pressures faced by modern farms means we can better guide clients toward strategic investments in technology, ensuring that animal health, business performance, and compliance targets are all achieved.