The following are preliminary results. An academic paper from the QUB Belfast work will be published mid-2024 so keep an eye out!
Great credit is due to the project teams at both Universities with whom we had the privilege and pleasure of working with. Their belief in the potential of TST to revolutionise parasite management is what allowed this work to happen.
UCD LYONS PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Project team: Ger Egan, Eddie Jordan, Stephen Lott (UCD Lyons Farm), Jack Cotter, Nick Cotter (Cotter Agritech)
Summary: A group of lambs on the farm was split in two. One half (FEC) were blanket treated with an effective anthelmintic when FEC exceeded 400 eggs per gram (epg). This has been the farms normal dosing protocol for a number of years. The other half (TST) were treated or not treated with the same effective anthelmintic, based on the drenching decision recommended by the Smartworm® app at monthly intervals. The FEC and TST lambs were run together throughout the study. The only variable was their dosing protocol (FEC or TST).
The animals enrolled were mixed sex spring born lambs, run together as a single mob. Useable data was available from 262 animals. 3 different breed types were present.
At each monthly handling, all lambs were recorded for weight and eID. In addition, individual faecal egg counts were taken from 15 animals in each group on the day of treatment.
A 45% reduction in wormer treatment was observed in the TST group when compared to the FEC group. Overall, there was an average difference in final liveweight of -370 grams total over the 84 days in the TST group compared to the FEC group. This marginally lower final liveweight was not significantly different than the FEC group, highlighting that leaving TST lambs untreated had an insignificant impact on liveweight and growth.
QUB BELFAST PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Project team: Prof. Eric Morgan, Dr. Christopher McFarland, Olivia Ingle PhD (QUB Belfast), Steven Johnston (Farmer), Jack Cotter, Nick Cotter (Cotter Agritech)
Summary: The same trial design was used at this farm, except the FEC half were blanket treated with an effective anthelmintic when FEC exceeded 300 eggs per gram (epg) as this was the farms normal anthelmintic protocol. Further, animals were weighed and assessed for the SmartWorm decision fortnightly.
The animals enrolled were mixed sex spring born lambs, run together as a single mob. Useable data was available from 110 animals. Only one breed type was present (Easycare).
A 58% reduction in wormer treatment was observed in the TST group when compared to the FEC group. Overall, there was an average difference in final liveweight of -340 grams total over the 86 days in the TST group compared to the FEC group. This marginally lower final liveweight was not significantly different than the FEC group, highlighting that leaving TST lambs untreated had an insignificant impact on liveweight and growth.
Some Photos of our project team at work!
