Sustainable equine parasite control: perspectives and research needs.

The study discusses the need for a shift from traditionally frequent anthelmintic treatment for horse parasites to more sustainable methods. The longstanding approach is showing increasing resistance, justifying the need for more sustainable techniques such as selective treatment based on the individual horse’s faecal egg count. However, an urgent need exists for research into the long-term implications of this method, the effects of selective treatment on other parasites, and the development of better diagnostic tools.

Traditional method and its challenges

• The paper opens drawing attention to the ubiquity of clinically important equine parasites in managed horse populations.
• Traditionally, all horses on a farm were frequently administered with anthelmintics – drugs that expel parasitic worms from the body.
• However, increasing levels of resistance to anthelmintics among parasites is causing a shift in this approach.

Selective Therapy approach

• An alternative to the year-round deworming approach is selective therapy, a method that is more sustainable and considers the importance of maintaining an adequate count of parasite refugia.
• Additionally, the paper describes how the faecal egg count for a horse is a consistent trait, and thus provides a reliable basis for implementing selective therapy.
• Despite these positive aspects, there is limited practical experience with selective therapy and no studies evaluating its long-term consequences, leading the authors to strongly call for more research in this area.

Improving Diagnostic Tools

• The researchers also urge a vigilant approach in monitoring the population and intensity of parasites due to uncertainty about the possible effects of selective therapy on the prevalence and intensity of other significant pathogens.
• The paper also highlights the challenge that most equine nematode parasites pose more danger during their larval stages when traditional egg counting techniques cannot detect them.
• Therefore, the authors suggest the development of parasite-specific diagnostic tools that can assess prepatent parasite burdens and differentiate between strongyle species of differing pathogenic potentials.
• The authors also call for improved methods for detecting infections with the tapeworm Anoplocephala perfoliata, stating that current techniques are laborious and difficult to interpret with no established method to evaluate treatment efficacy.

Biological Control as the Future?

• Another alternative presented in the paper is biological control, primarily predatory fungi, that have shown potential as useful for controlling strongyles.
• According to the authors, these could be readily accepted and applied in equine establishments acknowledging the potential market feasibility.

Conclusion

• In conclusion, the paper advocates for abandoning the traditional approach of treating all horses at regular intervals.
• It proposes that optimal parasite control could potentially be maintained with far fewer anthelmintic treatments.
• Nevertheless, the authors insist that improved diagnostics and further research into selective therapy’s long-term effects need to be conducted to establish systems for sustainable equine parasite control.