Barriers and incentives for uptake of diagnostics for sustainable worm control by European dairy cattle farmers
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abstract
COMBAR COST EU
The sustainable control of gastro-intestinal nematodes remains one of the main perennial endemic disease pressures that farmers face with infections impacting on health, welfare and production efficiency of livestock. For over 50 years parasite control strategies in many countries relied heavily on suppressing nematode populations with frequent use of broad-spectrum anthelmintics. The effectiveness and availability of products across Europe is markedly different, but the need to maintain sustainable productivity is universal. As part of an EU COST action (COMBAR; https://www.combarca.eu) a questionnaire was disseminated to sheep farmers from European countries to gather information on: 1) farmer demographics and enterprise characteristics 2) general roundworm control/anthelmintic resistance attitude statements 3) knowledge and understanding questions 4) attitudinal statements regarding parasite control recommendation and 5) parasite control behaviours.
Completed questionnaires were returned by over 2300 respondents from nine countries across Europe: Austria, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Wales. Descriptive analysis indicated the perception of roundworms as a major problem on farms is lower in southern Europe compared to central and northern Europe, a similar pattern occurs when examining how roundworms rank in comparison to other endemic diseases.
