FEARS THAT guidance over effective wormer control is falling on deaf ears has prompted scientists to look at improving communications around athelmintic resistance to farmers and crofters.

Sustainable livestock production relies on effective helminth control – however anthelmintic resistance is a growing concern industry wide.

Crofters and farmers are being encouraged to look at improving practices on-farm in order to reduce reliance on anthelmintics, however, despite guidelines for worm control being widely publicised in the UK, there is concern that uptake in some areas remains low.

Scientists at the Moredun Institute have been exploring what the current barriers to uptake are and how they can improve the way they share messages to farmers.

Two pieces of work were carried out, firstly an expert elicitation exercise and secondly a questionnaire survey to farmers both in the UK and across Europe. The former survey was designed to gather opinion from experts on the importance and practicability of current recommendations, perceived barriers to uptake and the effectiveness of current knowledge exchange platforms. The latter was disseminated to sheep farmers from European countries to gather information on farmer demographics and attitudes towards general roundworm control; anthelmintic resistance and parasite control.

In the first exercise it was found that effective administration of anthelmintics was ranked the most important and practical by all groups, with effective quarantine being consider practically important. Preserving susceptible worms on farm and reducing dependence on anthelmintics were ranked the least important or practical with the main barrier for uptake being the complexity of these messages. It was found that demonstration and face-to-face events were more likely to evoke changes in behaviour than online material or consumer-pressure.

The questionnaire which returned over 2300 respondents from nine countries across Europe, revealed that the perception of roundworms as a major problem on farms, is lower in southern Europe compared to central and northern Europe. Direct communication in-person or over the phone remains the preferred format for receiving information on roundworm control, but other formats such as paper articles, leaflets, podcasts and webinars are equally important – which the SF was told is a big change from 10 years ago.

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Parasitologist Dr Dave Bartley of the Moredun Institute explained that rising anthelmintic resistance in the industry is widely viewed as an issue, however there is often denial by farmers that it is an issue on individual farms.

He said that there is more to be done to engage with farmers on the importance of testing and to improve biosecurity and quarantining measures on-farm, but also on communicating the economics side – what are the costs of resistance and worms.

“It is not all doom and gloom but sometimes the messaging around anthelmintic resistance can make people think it is the end of the world," he said. "We need to get across the positives such a using egg counts and quarantining to get on top of the problem.

“We don’t want every farmer to become a parasitologist, but we do want them to understand the basics. We all need to sing from the same hymn sheet and the priority has to be on getting concise, clear and unified messages across to all farmers and crofters,” he concluded.