Alternative approaches to control of parasites in livestock: Nordic and Baltic perspectives

Abstract

It is evident from several on-farm surveys that levels of parasite infections vary markedly between livestock production systems and from one farm to another [1]. The background for these differences relates to livestock breeds, different management factors and other practices that directly or indirectly affect parasite infections, and also to farmers’ attitudes e.g. the chosen threshold for intervention. This paper deals with practices or interventions that can be actively applied by farmers aiming specifically at control of mainly helminth infections, either by reducing the parasite infrapopulations directly, e.g. by means of antiparasitic crops, or by limiting the uptake of external stages, e.g. by pasture management. The term “alternative” approaches has been applied (despite several options not being very alternative or novel but relatively old) to denote only limited focus on use of commercial anthelmintics. Focus will be on approaches relevant to primarily ruminant and pig production and which can be applied in the Nordic-Baltic context after some modification or which may serve as a guideline for relevant research in our region. For practical reasons the options will be dealt with one at a time although, as pointed out in several reviews [2,3], the combination of two or more options, or the combination with limited use of anthelmintics, will in many cases be the optimal approach.