New hope in the fight for sheep health in Australia

FARMERS are looking down the barrel of their last line of drug defence against parasitic nematodes, and without new research developments in the near future, they will face a devastating blow to their livelihoods.

Hope is springing from the work of Murdoch PhD student Robert Marano, who may have found a way to ramp up the effectiveness of the common Macrocyclic Lactone (ML) treatments.

Farmers need to maximise the growth rates and condition of their livestock and currently losses from labour and damage to livestock and the cost of treatment are estimated at $220 million annually in Australia,” said Marano’s supervisor Professor Andrew Thompson.

However, industry sources suspect that this figure will blow out to $700 million annually within the next ten years unless a new treatment strategy is developed.”

During his PhD focusing on the parasitic sheep nematode Ostertagia circumcincta, Robert discovered a new mechanism the nematodes were using for ML resistance (referred to as Anti-MLR) against the common drug treatment ivermectin. We think this mechanism may be a key to developing new lines of defence for farmers.

With this information, we are hoping to develop molecular based diagnostic tools for resistant strains and we may also find ways to overcome the ever growing resistance of this parasite and many similar ones affecting both sheep and cattle.”

With Dr Marano’s PhD completed, Professor Thompson and a multidisciplinary team at Murdoch University have taken up the reins of the Anti-MLR research and are University. working with Murdoch’s Research and Development management team to form a joint venture or strategic alliance with a suitable commercial partner.