The Five Point Check © for targeted selective treatment of internal parasites in small ruminants

Abstract

Although the principle of targeted selective treatment (TST) has become accepted as a valuable tool in reducing the speed of onset of anthelmintic resistance (AR) and a key part of sustainable and holistic integrated parasite management ( sh IPM), the only practical and proven on-farm method developed to date has been the FAMACHA © system of clinical anaemia evaluation. This is by its nature limited to use in the few haematophagous parasites that cause anaemia, especially Haemonchus contortus. The principle of TST can be extended for use against other important internal parasites, provided that the system developed is practical, economical and reasonably able to identify animals at risk of being overwhelmed by current internal or external parasite challenge. Candidates for an extended TST system have included nasal discharge (for nasal bots), paling of ocular mucous membranes for anaemia (for haematophagous worms), submandibular oedema or bottle jaw (for haematophagous worms and conical fluke), body condition score (for worms causing loss of condition) and faecal fouling or dag score (for worms causing diarrhoea). The potential uses and limitations of each of these quick, crush-side checks are listed and discussed and data supporting their implementation is summarised. A practical, farmer-friendly guide has been developed to enable users to: (i) evaluate small ruminants rapidly for signs of parasitism, (ii) make effective assessments, (iii) identify the likely parasites, (iv) select anthelmintic groups that could be used, (v) use practical systems for temporarily identifying treated animals and (vi) know the limitations of the system. This system has been named the Five Point Check © (5·√ ©) for international, multilingual use and constitutes a further, practical extension of TST. This can make a useful contribution to sh IPM.