The full title of Bruce Thompson’s project is Can anthelmintic resistance mitigation measures benefit the environment through the employment of grazing strategies and dung beetles?

“Basically, it is looking at the free-living stage of parasites,” he explains. “I’ve been looking at grazing techniques to reduce the need for using anthelmintics and reducing the risk on pastures.

“And the effects that the anthelmintics have on biodiversity and how biodiversity can actually contribute to the reduction of parasites on pasture.

They were bringing in dung beetles from different parts of the world including Europe and mass rearing them

“That focus is really on the dung beetle, because the dung beetle buries the dung pats and gets rid of the dung pats and so gets rid of the parasites,” he adds.

Bruce had seen the use of the dung beetles in Australia where they had imported the insects to control parasites and algae bloom in the waterways. They were bringing in dung beetles from different parts of the world including Europe and mass rearing them.

“I was on a dairy farm in North Tasmania which is very similar to Ireland in terms of climate and landscape.

I was really amazed, that really sold it to me

“It was a research farm, their version of Moorepark,” he says.

“They released beetles on to a field which cows had come off of three days prior to me being there and there were no dung pats in it, they were completely gone into the soil,” he explains.

“I was really amazed, that really sold it to me.”

Bruce has not used wormer on his cattle since 2017 and has reduced his use of anthelmintic products on the farm down to less than 30%.

He will be presenting his project at Nuffield Ireland’s annual conference at Castleknock Hotel on Friday 12 November 2021.

Read more

Laurence Shalloo talks about his career from low points to high honours

Studying Abroad: tales from Poland