Anthelmintic resistance and management of nematode parasites on beef cattle-rearing farms in the North Island of New Zealand

AIM: To provide information on current farmers’ opinions and farming practices thought to be related to anthelmintic resistance, and to test for associations between the presence of anthelmintic resistance and management practices on beef cattle- rearing farms in the North Island of New Zealand.

METHODS: A study using an interview-based questionnaire about management of internal parasites was conducted on 62 beef cattle-rearing farms in the North Island of New Zealand, using case-control analyses to test for associations between management practices and the presence or absence of resistance to ivermectin or albendazole. Resistance was inferred from faecal nematode egg count (FEC) reduction (FECR) tests (FECRTs) when there was <90% reduction in FEC 7-10 days after treatment of calves <12 months of age.

RESULTS: Of the 59 farmers who completed the questionnaire, most (n=40) ranked parasites highly, and at about the same level as quality and quantity of feed, as important production-limiting factors for their enterprises. In contrast, anthelmintic resistance was not perceived to be a problem on 13 farms, and its importance was rated low on 24, moderate on 15, and high on only six farms. Despite all farms having planned parasite control programmes, there was heavy reliance on clinical signs of parasitism to determine frequency of treatments. About one in three farmers with beef breeder cows routinely treated their calves at marking, one in five treated mixed-age cows, and almost half treated rising 2-year-old cows before calving. One in four farmers used anthelmintics on calves on 8–12 occasions in their first year of life. Co-grazing with other species was rare, but follow-on grazing within 3 months after older cattle or sheep was common. On most farms, grazing cattle was restricted to part of the farm, a finding with implications for parasite control and persistence of larvae in refugia. Macrocyclic lactone (ML) anthelmintics or their combinations with other action families were currently, and for the past 5 years, used more frequently than benzimidazoles and levamisole, and benzimidazole-levami- sole combinations. The prevalence of resistance to ivermectin was high (82%) and no plausible model of associations could be constructed from the data. The prevalence of resistance to albendazole was 60%, and the risk of resistance increased as the number of rising 1-year-old cattle present mid-winter increased, and decreased as the number of breeding cows >2 years old present mid-winter increased.

CONCLUSION: It is clear that in practice anthelmintic resistance is a secondary consideration to obtaining productivity advantages from the use of anthelmintics in beef cattle. Farmers’ opinions were divided on many issues and the overall impres- sion was of confused and diverse thinking regarding the principles of the use of anthelmintics. The overall outlook regarding anthelmintic resistance in cattle is bleak unless the need for integrated and long-term research activities is acted upon soon.     

Resistance to foliage-feeding insects in conifers: implications for pest management

The ecological implications of insect resistance in conifers are rarely discussed. It is however a fairly straightforward plant-insect interaction and should be treated as such, making use of the increasing amount of information in this field. Work on tree breeding is usually carried out by silviculturalists who, not surprisingly, rarely consider the insect component of the environment in which the treess are growing. In all fairness, it must be stated that many entomologists, fail to consider the plant component of the interaction. Clonal forestry will almost certainly result in the loss of genetic variability. The use of clonal material has already been cited as a possible source for the diminution of the resistance against pests and diseases and if particular resistance mechanisms against forest pests are sought in the future the reduction in genetic material caused by clonal selection could have serious consequences. The ethics of clonal forestry have been questioned as have the ethics of biotechnological advances in the area of recombinant DNA molecules. The potential of both these techniques should be publicized and brought to the attention of the general public and the scientific community at large and evaluated. To improve our forest environment and to protect the environment as a whole, entomologists, geneticists, physiologists and silviculturalists must work together to produce better trees that require little, if any, chemical aid, be it insecticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers. An increasing awareness of the environmental problems generated by large-scale insecticide applications to forest plantations, coupled with an increasingly chemophobic work-force and the difficulty in obtaining pesticide registration for use in forest environments, means that the forest industry world-wide must look to the use of integrated control measures with more diligence than has been shown in the past. Many recent outbreaks of pests and diseases have been linked with particular seed origins of tree crops. Host plant resistance as part of a suite of other proposed integrated control tools is thus an obvious candidate for development. Despite this, scientists concerned with tree improvement continue to select largely for silvicultural traits rather than for resistance to pests and disease. The different avenues open to plant breeders are examined and the potential of breeding trees resistant to insect attack highlighted. Using resistant trees as part of an integrated pest management system has five very important properties. Firstly, there is no additional pest control cost to the grower, secondly, it operates at all levels of insect incidence and not just when the pest is at high population levels, thirdly, it reduces the insect population cumulatively, fourthly it avoids toxic residues and environmental pollution and, finally, it usually interacts well with the other integrated pest management strategies in existence.     

动物园动物的应激及其管理

应激是圈养野生动物所不能避免的,对动物的负面影响是多方面的。针对动物园动物应激的特点,对动物园存在的应激进行分析归类,阐述应激的危害和解释实践中的问题,采取有效措施对应激进行监测与管理,减弱应激的负面影响。     

引进温室带给中国设施园艺现代化的思考

中国引进现代化温室面积已逾２００ｈｍ＾２,对中国温室业的发展起到了积极的推动和示范作用。本在回顾和总结引进温室的基础上,通过实例分析对中国未来现代化温室的发展和建设提出了一些借鉴经验,尤其在温室节能、温室管理等方面就在地制宜发展中国设施园艺工程提出了一些具体的看法。     

Management of Meloidogyne incognita in yam-based cropping systems with cover crops

The effect of intercropping cover crops was with yam was assessed for nematode management both in pot and field conditions in Nigeria. The cover crops were sown with yams in pots containing sterile soil and inoculated with 5000 eggs of Meloidogyne incognita. In the field, each cover crop was separately intercropped with yams inoculated with 10,000 nematodes. From both pot and field experiments, no nematode damage was observed on yam tubers that were intercropped with Aeschynomene histrix, Crotolaria juncea, and Tagetes erecta. Damage in intercropped tubers was reduced by 72.7% with Mucuna pruriens, Centrosema pubescens, and Pueraria phaseoloides and by 58.3% with Stylosanthes guianensis compared to yams planted without cover crops; they also had lower (p ≤ 0.05) nematode populations. Cajanus cajan, Lablab purpureus and Vigna unguiculata however, supported high nematode populations and led to nematode damage in intercropped yams. Tubers from M. incognita-inoculated plants were more damaged and lost 42% more weight (p ≤ 0.05) following three months of storage than tubers from uninoculated plants. Intercropping yams with selected cover crops can be useful in managing M. incognita without reducing yam yields.     

小菜蛾抗性稳定性及抗性治理对策研究

试验表明，福州地区田间小菜蛾已对有机磷、氨基甲酸酯及拟除虫菊酯产 生高抗性。脱离选择压力3代后，小菜蛾的抗性水平迅速下降。Bt预处理可提高抗性和敏感小菜蛾幼虫 对有机磷的敏感性，尤其对抗性小菜蛾增效极显著，对敏感小菜蛾AChE的 Ki值则影响不 大。据此提出在抗性治理中，应轮用或换用不同毒理机制的杀虫剂，且其间隔至少为2～3代。     

蜡蚧轮枝菌防治植物病虫害研究进展

蜡蚧轮枝菌在蔬菜病虫害防治中有很大开发潜力。就蜡蚧轮枝菌的致病性、环境条件对其生长的影响、储藏期存活率及在生产中应用的概况的研究进展进行了综述。研究进展表明,该种真菌既可以防治粉虱、蚜虫、蓟马等蔬菜害虫,又可以防治蔬菜的白粉病、锈病等。     

人类活动对珠江三角洲酸性硫酸盐土壤发育的影响

In the Pearl River Delta with more than 1000 years of intensive land reclamation history,the development of acid sulphate soils has been generally limited in terms of their acid potential (pyrite content)and spatial extent.This is attributed to the rapid delta progradation,partially resulted from increasing sediment yield caused by deforestation within the catchment and the empolderment in the estuarine embayment.The empolderment practice accompanied by the clearance of mangroves stopped the upward growth of the pyritic layer on the one hand and limited the vertical accretion of non-pyritic freshwater sediments over the pyritic layer on the one hand and limited the vertical accretion of non-pyritic freshwater sediments over the pyritic estuarine sediments on the other.In such a case,the pyritic layer in the area is frequently thin and of shallow occurrence.Under forced leaching-recharge conditions for the paddy rice cultivation ,the leaching of acid sulphate materials prevails over its production and this leads to a net loss in pyrite oxidation products.Land excavation for fishpond farming accelerates pyrite oxidation due to the direct exposure of the pyrtic sediments to air on the pond bunds.Severe acidification can intensity the environmental degradation of estuarine ecosystems.