As ‘eco-awareness’ and the demand for organic goods continues to grow, consumers increasingly expect the products they buy come from animals that have been raised free from all synthetic chemical compounds, and this includes the way animals are treated for disease.

As gastrointestinal nematodes, or roundworms, pose a significant threat to livestock and can be particularly problematic for organic farmers, an EU-funded project—Worm Control in Organic Production Systems (WORMCOPS)—has been set up to investigate ways of treating worms organically.

In conventional farming, livestock such as sheep and goats at risk of contracting parasites are kept in check through the preventive use of chemical anti-parasiticides, which are invalid for organic systems.

Following testing using bioactive plants or forages, WORMCOPS found that plants with naturally high levels of condensed tannins possess anti-parasitic properties that are effective against common gastrointestinal nematodes in small ruminants.
In addition to treating infected animals, researchers studied the efficiency of the nematode-destroying fungus Diddingtonia flagrans. Plot studies and in vitro testing of the fungus showed marked reductions in worm presence in goats.

Consortium participants also instituted a regime of evasive grazing, which consists of repeated moves of livestock to pastures free from harmful parasites. Worms were shown to be passed from one animal to the next via larvae trapped within faecal pellets, and not transmitted to the herbage, hence the need to rotate herds to clean pastures.

The project consortium consisted of eight partners from six European countries organised by the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (Denmark). The total cost of the project was €2.7 million ($3.5 million) with over half of this sum coming from DG Research.