Untitled

Abstract

To evaluate the efficacy with which recommendations of means to avoid the spread of anthelmintic resistance in parasitic nematode populations are communicated to farmers on dairy goat farms in France, a questionnaire survey was undertaken on their use of antiparasitic drugs. Information was collected from 73 farms in two main areas of dairy goat production. The data referred to three years. Anthelmintics were used in 69 farms, the mean number of treatments per year being 2.74. Changing the drug from one year to another was not practised. Moreover, of the 58 farms using two or more treatments per year, only 37% used anthelmintics from different classes in the lactation and drying-off periods. Benzimidazoles and probenzimidazoles were given in all except two farms and these substances represented more than 80% of all the treatments. Levamisole/pyrantel or avermectins were used in 15% and 27% of the farms, respectively. Double the ovine dose, as recommended in goats to ensure efficacy of benzimidazoles, was applied in 55% of the farms. In addition, in all the flocks, the substances were given on the basis of a mean estimated live weight and not by reference to the heaviest animal. These results indicate that errors in the use of anthelmintics are still frequent in dairy goat farms in France, with probable consequences for the spread of anthelmintic resistance in the populations of parasites.

Worm control practice against gastro-intestinal parasites in Norwegian sheep and goat flocks

“…In the goat flocks, 85.1% used visual appraisal for weight estimation. Similar results were found in Slovakia and France, where visual weight estimation was used in 87.8% and 100.0% of the small ruminant flocks, respectively [31,32]. If weighing each animal or only the heaviest animals, were considered as the only acceptable method for calculating the dose, only 8.3% of the sheep flocks and 2.5% of the goat flocks in our survey had an appropriate dose calculation.…”

“…The worm control management and use of anthelmintics in Norway do not fundamentally differ from general practices in Denmark, France, Slovakia and the UK [25,28,29,31,32]. To some extent, inaccurate dose calculations and a dose-and-move strategy seem to occur in all these countries.…”

“…Such practices were especially used for ewes and lambs before transporting them to the common grazing areas in the forest or mountains during the summer months. The dose-and-move strategy in small ruminant flocks has also been noticed as a common practice in other European countries [25,31-33]. However, moving drenched sheep onto pastures with a low level of parasite contamination increases the risk for AR [34,35].…”

“…Surveys based on questionnaires regarding worm control practices in small ruminants in Europe have previously been done in Denmark [25,26], the United Kingdom [27-30], France [31] and the Slovak Republic[32]. In Norway, a similar survey has not been performed.…”

Worm-control practices and prevalence of anthelmintic resistance using in vivo FECRTs on smallholder sheep farms in Lithuania

“…Questionnaire surveys of worm-control practices are very useful for examining the methods of anthelmintic use and animal management (Cernanska et al, 2008). Questionnaire surveys have been conducted for sheep farming in England (Fraser et al, 2006), Ireland (Patten et at., 2011), and the Slovak Republic (Cernanska et al, 2008), for sheep and goats in Denmark (Maingi et al, 1996), for goats in northern Italy (Zanzani et al, 2014) and in France (Hoste et al, 2000). The aim of this study was to determined the prevalence of anthelmintic resistance and to identify the resistant species of parasitic nematodes on smallholder sheep farms in Lithuania.…”