Teagasc Researcher, Orla Keane, is on this week’s Beef Edge podcast to discuss parasite control and anthelmintic resistance. 

Orla highlights the importance of reviewing your farm health plan at this time of year and she discusses the project that she is involved in called the, ‘Managing Anthelmintic Resistance in Cattle Sustainably' (MARCS) project.

MARCS is a collaborative project between Teagasc, University College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, Animal Health Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Its aims are to determine the extent of resistance to wormers on Irish cattle farms; identify major risk factors for the development of resistance so we can target mitigation strategies; and use models of worm population dynamics to apply sustainable parasite control to Irish farms.

Farmers can participate directly or vets can recruit their clients as participants.

Testing is the only way to know if a wormer is highly effective as other methods identify resistance too late. By participating in the MARCS project, valuable information about the anthelmintic resistance status of your farm or your clients’ farms will be obtained.

The test for resistance is a faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT). This test involves collecting individual faecal samples from a cohort of calves before and after wormer treatment and submission of the samples to the laboratory. A short survey on parasite control practices must also be completed.  Full guidance on the testing protocol will be provided and the sample testing will be provided free of charge.

If you are interested in testing for anthelmintic resistance on your farm or in recruiting your farmer clients to test for resistance, complete the form by clicking the button below, or contact [email protected]

Click here to get involved in the MARCS project:

https://form.jotform.com/243186865978377

For more episodes from the Beef Edge podcast, visit the show page at:
https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge

 
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