Authors

Discussion

Controlling parasitic helminths is an integral part of ruminant farm management and is highly dependent on using effective anthelmintics. Significant resistance of ruminant gastrointestinal helminths to a broad spectrum of anthelmintics has been well established across the UK, in a time where antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been declared as one of the biggest challenges to One Health for this generation. Studies in mammals have shown that anthelmintic administration has profound effects on commensal faecal bacteria, particularly in young individuals. Whilst research on parasite-microbiome interactions has increased, very little is known on how anthelmintic treatments may affect ruminant AMR.

We collected faecal samples from individual lambs experiencing their first grazing season residing on two separate pastures to determine whether repeated anthelmintic usage had any effect on AMR in two experimental treatment groups: 1) Blanket treated dependent on usual treatment schedule (Control group), and 2) targeted-selective-treatment (TST) group. These individual faecal samples were then pooled into their respective pasture group, where bacterial swabs were taken to grow on selective media. We used simple disk diffusion assays using several antibiotic classes to identify resistance. Whilst we determined differing levels of antibiotic resistance in lambs residing on separate pastures; no difference in resistance was observed between the two treatment groups. As local environments are frequently exposed to livestock faeces, through manure fertilizer, and pasture run-offs, further research into livestock management may be of further benefit to combatting AMR through One Health ideology.