A Screening Level Index for Assessing the Impacts of Veterinary Medicines on Dung Flies

Abstract

Veterinary parasiticides are administered to livestock to control a wide range of parasites. Following excretion, these substances may persist in the environment and impact nontarget organisms. This paper describes a simple screening-based index for predicting the effects of veterinary parasiticides on dung flies using data on parasiticide toxicity, animal husbandry, and parasiticide use. The utility of the index has been assessed, at the farm scale for a number of dipteran species, using data from a survey of farms in England and insect ecology and ecotoxicological data. The results indicate that a large proportion (35%) of parasiticide treatments in England will have no impact on dung fly populations. In terms of individual parasiticides, the macrocyclic lactone doramectin was predicted to have the highest impact on English dipteran populations with a maximum reduction in the population of horn flies on one farm of 28%. Ivermectin pour-on had the next highest impact (6.8%), followed by eprinomectin (6.4%), and ivermectin injection (4.1%). Due to a lack of data, it was not possible to assess the effects of the benzimidazole parasiticides (oxfendazole and fenbendazole), morantel and permethrin. The approach is simple, nondata-intensive and has the potential to be a valuable tool for use in environmental risk assessment or management of new and existing veterinary parasiticides.