PhD student tackles global cattle enquiry

Cattle on opposite ends of the world are the subjects of an ambitious PhD project that aims to compare the prevalence and infection pattern of Giardia and Cryptosporidium (two protozoan parasites) in feedlot cattle.

Brenda Ralston has begun the daunting task of commuting between Alberta, Canada, and Perth, Australia, to see how the parasite load of feedlot cattle from weaning until slaughter can affect their condition.

'I am looking at environmental and management factors in both Canada and Australia, and seeing how they might contribute to the similarities or differences observed. I hope to use molecular techniques to characterise the parasites of the positive animals into genotypes and further compare those infections in WA versus Canada,' Brenda said.

'The long term goal of my project is to quantify the effect that these parasitic infections have on feedlot cattle performance, so that we can put a dollar fi gure on their impact to the industry. This will enable us to look at the economic feasibility of controlling these infections to improve gain and therefore profi tability at the feedlot level.'

Brenda is a Beef Specialist (New Technologies) with Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development, and is being strongly supported by her employer to complete her PhD studies on this topic.

She was drawn to enrolling in her PhD studies at Murdoch University under Professor Andrew Thompson and Associate Professor David Pethick after encountering Professor Thompson's collaborative research with the University of Calgary.

Brenda is one of a team of PhD students that have been drawn internationally to work with the parasitology expertise of Murdoch University's School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.

Other projects include the work of a veterinarian from Mahidol University in Bangkok who is developing expertise and tools to tackle the cattle disease neosporosis, and the work of PhD student Rob Steuart who is examining ways to combat Giardia in cattle.