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?

Understand breed, species and individual differences in protective immune response to infection and other forms of
physiological resistance, and implications for fluke control.

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

While such differences have been observed, their genetic basis has not been elucidated, either in terms of mechanism or heredity. This understanding is needed in order to determine whether selective breeding or breed substitution are viable strategies to assist in control of fluke infections.

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

• Genetic characterisation of hosts with greater apparent resistance or resilience to fluke infection
• Immunological studies of resistance versus susceptible lines
• GWAS studies using breed and outbred ruminant populations to evaluate intra and interbreed resistance.

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

Improved genetic and immunological tools

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

Because there appears to be little natural acquired resistance to fluke infection, there has been limited scope to map this to genetics and mechanisms