Gastro-intestinal nematodes (worms!) are a major threat to food security and production as their infections negatively impact sheep health and welfare, GHG emissions, sustainable livestock production and farm profitability. They cost the global livestock industry ~€10 billion in lost production annually. Good worm control is highly dependent on effective drugs (anthelmintics). However, a direct and unavoidable result of continuous use of wormers is drug resistance. And so, the threat posed by worms is increasing as the drugs we use no longer work as well as they used to.

The more a drug is used, the faster resistance develops. This is particularly true when all the lambs are treated at the same time, regularly, whether they need it or not (i.e. blanket treated). Whenever you blanket treat, you kill only the susceptible worms inside the animal. The resistant worms survive the treatment, and are left to breed amongst themselves. Thus, their percentage of the overall worm population increases, eventually to the point that the drug no longer works. If you're really silly and blanket treat with the same drug continuously for 2-3 years, drug efficacy can easily go from 100% to <50%.

TST is where we treat the minimum number of animals. This is done, not on the basis of the number of worms, but on the basis of impact on production, as that's what's important. With TST, we specifically only treat the ones negatively impacted by worms. Everything else is left untreated, including lambs who may have some worms but are not affected by them. TST is an excellent parasite control strategy because it eliminates the infection in negatively affected animals, but it's much more cost-effective than blanket treatment and prevents resistance.

SmartWorm doesn't count the actual number of worms (like FECs do); instead it measures the impact worms are having on the lamb's performance (an indirect method involving an advanced algorithm). Once a month, farmers record weight and eID in the app, along with an estimate of pasture quality and availability (Poor, Average or Good). The algorithm also takes into account things like recent rainfall and temperature, and the physiological status of the lamb. Then, in real time, it tells you if the lamb needs treatment or not, and it's very precise in its predictions.

TST is just as effective in maintaining the health of sheep as treating the entire flock, yet it requires significantly less wormer—about 40-50% less, according to our trials.

This approach substantially lowers the cost of managing worm infections and helps ensure that the treatments remain effective.