Interpretive Summary: Sustainable worm control in ruminants in Europe: current perspectives

By: Johannes Charlier, Laura Rinaldi, Eric R Morgan, Edwin Claerebout, Dave J Bartley, Smaragda Sotiraki, Marcin Mickiewicz, Maria Martinez-Valladares, Natascha Meunier, Tong Wang, Alistair Antonopoulos, Helena C de Carvalho Ferreira

• Anthelmintic resistance is an escalating problem in Europe and the environmental consequences (soil and aquatic health) related to anthelmintic use are an increasing matter of concern.
• Several sustainable worm control (SWC) practices are available now. These include the increased use of diagnostics and decision support enabling a targeted use of anthelmintics. Complementary control measures, referred to as the “Basket of Options”, include plant-based control, grazing management, nematode-destroying fungi, and selective breeding and can also reduce the need for anthelmintic use. Their use is more complex than the simple use of anthelmintics and their uptake has remained relatively low.
• Equipped by recent studies on the barriers to and drivers of uptake of SWC practices, it is now time to develop a Community of Practice across Europe, involving all relevant stakeholders at local, national, and European levels to achieve SWC together.

Cattle, sheep, goats, and their associated industries are a vital component in the development of rural areas and sustainable land use strategies in Europe. With 77 million bovines and 74 million sheep and goats in the EU (Eurostat, 2023), ruminant production is deeply linked to European culture. All European farmed ruminant populations with outdoor access are exposed to parasitic worm (helminth) infections and these remain an important constraint on ruminant productivity. They cost the sector an estimated over €1.8 billion a year, with 80% of this due to production losses and 20% due to treatment costs (Charlier et al., 2020). Worm infections are sensitive to weather conditions and the changing climate, can severely impact animal welfare, and lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from parasitized livestock (Charlier et al., 2017; Houdijk et al., 2017). Reducing the burden of helminth infections in livestock is thus an actionable contribution to the United Nation’s sustainable development goals and the EU’s long-term strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector by 49% by 2050.

Read the full article in Animal Frontiers.