Roadmap for the development of control strategies for liver fluke

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

The impact of the age structure of a herd/flock on fluke contamination levels and transmission

What are the scientific and technological challenges (knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

• Differences in the response of cattle and sheep.
• The basis of age-resistance in cattle, and whether this represents a real difference in susceptibility that can be used to aid control.

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

• Field monitoring of infection levels and dynamics in different age cohorts across the whole farm production cycle.
• Basic research on the immunological differences between different animal species and ages.

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

Immunological tools for ruminants are some way behind those for other animal models.

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

• Repeated infection appears to make the liver more refractory to infection, but this has not been adequately tested or its basis fully explored.
• Sheep and cattle differ in immune response but again the basis is not known, even to the extent of being physiological or immunological in nature.
• Level of difference between breeds in susceptibility and response is not known