Sustainable helminth control practices in the United Kingdom

Parasitic helminths are highly complex organisms with large, polymorphic genomes and enormous biotic potentials. They have evolved over millions of years to exploit whatever conditions arise, and will continue to do so in response to adverse stimuli such as practices aimed at their control, or advantageous stimuli, for example afforded by climatic variation and economics-driven changes in farm management. Helminth control is therefore definitely unsustainable and the challenge facing UK sheep farmers is to ensure that current measures enable economically viable sheep production for long enough to allow for the development of new strategies, before the existing methods eventually fail. This paper was presented at the 2013 Eighth International Sheep Veterinary Congress, illustrating certain areas in which the unsustainability of helminth control in UK sheep has already been identified, and summarising approaches that are being taken to enable adequate productivity in the face of such challenges.