Contact
Johan Höglund
Professor at the Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health; Parasitology Unit
Telephone: 018-672371, 070-2574156
E-mail: johan.hoglund@slu.se
Detection of anthelmintic resistance
Last changed: 30 August 2022
Parasitic worms are globally common infections in animals including children living in poverty and contribute to diseases, which impair the health and welfare of the host. As development of immunity against worms in slow and incomplete, parasite control has to be based on deworming with anthelmintics. It has, however, been shown that misuse of these medical drugs leads to anthelmintic resistance (AR), which endangers the success of parasite control programs.
This is an increasing problem wordwide in particular with pasture borne-infections in domestic livestock and with management systems favoring parasite transmission. The detection of AR is a complicated issue and still largely relies on the faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT), which has been the standard method since decades. While FECRT may be appropriate in small ruminants, problems with small sample sizes and low parasite egg counts such as in for example cattle parasites, reduce the reliability. Only to a lesser extent, there is access to bioassays based on in vitro testing of parasite eggs/larvae. Furthermore, validated molecular detection methods are still only available for BZ resistance and only for a few parasites of specific interest.
To combat the spread of nematodes resistance to anthelmintics, an improved understanding about the factors involved in the emergence of AR and more sensitive diagnostic tests are required, which can be applied in the field so that not only clinical levels of resistance can be detected with confidence but also at an early stage. In the ideal situation measures can then be introduced on the farms to prevent further selection for AR. In our section we are working with a range of host parasite interactions but with a certain focus on helminhoses in grazing livestock. If you are interested in this area then you are more than welcome to work with us but also to come up with own ideas that can be discussed in more depth before the start of the project.