Roadmap for nematode control strategies

Can we set up a monitoring system to detect variation and changes in nematode prevalence and AR over time, to inform decisions at various spatial scales?

Lack of harmonisation of diagnostic tests and systems.
No means of collating and analysing data over large scales for unregulated endemic diseases.
Surveys of AR tend to be opportunistic and suffer from strong selection bias.
Prevalence does not necessarily relate directly to the more relevant metrics of nematode abundance and level of drug efficacy (c.f. proportion of farms with <95% efficacy).

Use existing epidemiological methods to select representative farms for surveys and robust sample sizes.
Use of existing sample collection schemes based on bulk tank milk (BTM) monitoring programmes and veterinary and hunting networks for the collection of faecal samples from non-dairy livestock and wildlife.

Harmonize or integrate diagnostic methods and systems across various countries and regions for comparable results.
Develop robust methods to determine nematode species especially GIN from eggs in faeces.
Use of private data requires informed consent for all parameters in question.

Complementary to predictive systems, it is important to set up surveillance systems that monitor infection status at farm level on a regular basis. Such systems can capture unexpected deviations from mathematical model predictions and indicate whether farmer management is able to cope with altered disease risk or not. Moreover longitudinal monitoring approaches have been shown to be an effective decision support tool.