Reducing parasite resistance on equine operations using a comprehensive, whole-farm approach

Reducing parasite resistance on equine operations using a comprehensive, whole-farm approach

Summary

A team consisting of veterinarians, equine Extension educators, specialists and program assistants and farm owners met in person and via conference call to develop the protocol for the project.  Dr. Martin Nielsen, world reknown equine veterinarian and expert in parasite resistance with the Gluck Institute, University of Kentucky, was retained as the project consultant.  In order to empower horse owners to make changes in their deworming program, it is important to provide clientele with the knowledge and skills necessary to be confident they are making good management decisions.  To meet this need, a comprehensive parasite management short course, Managing Parasites on Equine Operations Using a Whole Farm Approach, was developed and offered at 4 locations in PA. Major concepts and topics included: types of parasites – their life cycles and impact on equine health; the biology of resistance and the importance of establishing a refuge of non-resistant parasites; classes of dewormers; the danger of short interval deworming; the importance of using fecal egg counts as a tool to reduce the use of dewormers;  pasture management and manure composting and removal  to reduce parasite burdens;  and the effects of temperature and rainfall  on parasite development. To encourage veterinarians and other equine professionals to attend the course, continuing education credits were offered.  Farm managers that completed the course were asked to serve as project partners and participate in the research portion of the project. The farm managers will follow established protocol and monitor strongle egg production, identify “shedders” and evaluate product efficacy by conducting pre and post deworming egg counts.  The team has selected fecal egg count monitoring sites, developed the necessary materials and protocol for documenting egg shedding in participant horses and evaluating product efficacy. 149 farm owners and 16 veterinarians and equine professionals from 24 PA counties completed the first round of short courses; 76 farm owners have enrolled their farms in the research portion of the project, representing 747 horses.

• Project Poster
• short course press release
• Short Course Program Brochure

Objectives/Performance Targets

• 260 of 300 participants in the short course, Managing Equine Parasites using a Whole Farm Approach, will implement at least two new practices to reduce parasite burdens on pastures (remove manure from pastures, improve pasture quality to reduce  grazing in manure deposition areas, rotate pastures after  deworming, deworm new individuals, compost manure before applying to pastures,  use fecal egg counts to strategically deworm “shedders”).

• 80 farm managers that completed the course will use established protocol to conduct pre and post fecal egg counts , supplying data from 640 horses (average – 8 per farm) and will:

• document egg shedding in horses enrolled in the project.

• identify and eliminate the use of products that show resistance on their farms

• identify and strategically deworm the “shedders” on their farm

• eliminate 3 dewormings of all non-shedding horses, resulting in an economic savings of $27 per horse annually.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Milestones

2014

September  (Completed)

• Develop fecal egg count monitoring protocol.

• Identify monitoring sites and project assistants.

• Develop and distribute project awareness and promotional material to PA equine veterinarians.

October to November (Completed)

• Develop curriculum, necessary data collection forms and training, marketing and evaluation materials.

December (Completed)

• Market the program by placing ads in equine journals and distributing brochure and flyers.

2015

February through November

• 300 farm managers will attend one of 6 short courses and will learn about parasite life cycles, resistance development, and the effects of temperature, rainfall, pasture rotation an manure composting on parasite     Another 300 will attend stand-alone workshops on parasite biology and management. (As of March 2015 , 149 horse owners and 16 veterinarians completed one of 3 short courses, 22 additionl frm owners attended a stand alone workshop help at the Horse World Expo)

• Identify farm managers for inclusion in the fecal egg count monitoring project (As of march 2015, 75 farm owners have enrolled as farm cooperators in the project)

• Present parasite management workshops at the Horse World Expo ( One workshop was held at the Horse World Expo on March 7, 2015)

March and April

• Offer training for project assistants and participating farm managers at the monitoring sites (Completed)

March though December (In progress)

• Farm managers enrolled in the project conduct fecal egg counts using established protocol and record data.

• Team and the farm veterinarian provide individual assistance with deworming strategies, and product selection and evaluation.

July through November

• Team conducts 6 individual workshops on parasite biology and management, properly composting manure and improving pastures to reduce parasite exposure .

• Two additional short courses are offered in November.

2016

January through November

• Farm managers continue to document pre and post deworming parasite levels in their horses

• Team continues to provide individual assistance for farm managers

• Four individual workshops on parasite management, properly composting manure and improving pastures to reduce grazing pressure in manured areas are offered.

• Participants in the short courses are surveyed to document practices that they adopted to reduce parasite exposure and proliferation of resistant parasites

2017

January and February

• Farm Managers participating in the fecal egg count monitoring project will complete an evaluation to document the impact that the project had on the reduction in number of dewormings in non-shedding horses.  Participants will also report any products that failed to reduce egg shedding to acceptable levels indicating on-farm resistance to that product.

March through August

• Project team analyzes data on parasite level and product efficacy on PA farms and makes the information available to horse owners and veterinarians through presentation and by preparing peer reviewed abstracts and fact sheets and placing articles in equine journals and magazines.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Seventy of the 149 farm owners that completed the short course have enrolled their farms as farm partners and will conduct fecal egg counts on the horses on their farm to monitor egg shedding and evaluate the efficacy of the products they use.  Planning meetings are being scheduled with the farm partners to review the project protocol, identify convenient monitoring sites, and to familiarize the participants with the process of preparing samples, identifying eggs and conducting the counts.  We anticipate that 75 % of the farm mangers that enrolled as partners will continue in the program.

A post short course evaluation was conducted after each short course.  The following are the results of the evaluation conducted at the Lancaster County locations.

Participants reported a very large to moderately large increase in knowledge about each of the following concepts:

• Evaluation

Collaborators: