Anthelmintic resistance in Northern Ireland (III): Uptake of ‘SCOPS’ (Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep) recommendations by sheep farmers

A quantitative analysis of attitudes and behaviours concerning sustainable parasite control practices from Scottish sheep farmers

“…Various questionnaire surveys have been undertaken and published on the parasite management practices of sheep farmers from around the world, as well as within the UK (Coles, 1997;Bartley et al, 2004;Suter et al, 2005;Hughes et al, 2007;Lawrence et al, 2007;Sargison et al, 2007;Morgan et al, 2012;McMahon et al, 2013). Such studies have highlighted the variable adoption of sustainable roundworm control practices, and emphasised the need to improve promotion and perception of these practices if sustainable parasite control is to be generally accepted.…”

Evaluation of ‘best practice’ (SCOPS) guidelines for nematode control on commercial sheep farms in England and Wales

“…The guidelines have been summarised in a technical manual that offers a toolbox approach with alternative methods for worm control that can be tailored to individual farms (Abbott et al, 2012) and this manual was first published in 2004 and then updated in 2007 and 2009. Although there is compelling evidence from controlled experiments for the ability of the proposed guidelines to delay the development of anthelmintic resistance (Kenyon and Jackson, 2012;Leathwick et al, 2006Leathwick et al, , 2008, there are no data currently available for this effect on commercial farms and there is some suggestion from survey data that farmers have been slow to adopt the guidelines (Morgan and Coles, 2010;McMahon et al, 2013). In order to realise the benefit of investment in initiatives such as SCOPS, it is critical that the guidelines are adopted by as great a proportion of farmers as possible, particularly where there is exchange of animals between farms and the potential for spread of resistant genotypes.…”

Potential impacts of climate change on veterinary medicinal residues in livestock produce: An island of Ireland perspective††This paper is one of a series of reviews on “Climate Change and Food Safety – an Island of Ireland perspective”.

“…AAD resistance was absent in all flocks tested (McMahon et al, 2013a). Between 2005 and 2011, a number of changes in sheep management practices in NI were identified (McMahon et al, 2013c) which would be expected to slow the spread of anthelmintic resistance. These included increased duration of quarantine separation and increased contribution to the in refugia population by ewes.…”

“…Product selection is influenced heavily by price, method of application and a history of effective use (Patten, Good, Hanrahan, & de Waal, 2011;McMahon et al, 2013c). Increasing levels of anthelmintic resistance (confirmed or anecdotal accounts), therefore, will have an effect on product selection which, in turn, will have an effect on when the meat or milk produced will be suitable for human consumption, given that different anthelmintic products are subject to different withdrawal periods.…”

“…To a large extent, farmers on IoI do not seem to be following the published SCOPS/COWS guidelines (Patten, Good, Hanrahan, & de Waal, 2011;McMahon et al, 2013c). Already there have been large-scale shifts in product use (Fig.…”