ParaCalc® – outils informatiques pour maitriser le parasitisme en élevage bovin

Abstract

A crucial role for assessing their economic impact will be reserved for diagnostic and computational tools used to detect these infections and their impact on farm performance. Here we will describe ParaCalc®, a web-site (www.ParaCalc.com) providing tools to support the control of parasitic infections in livestock. The original idea of ParaCalc® was to integrate diagnostic test information with farm information in order to monitor the economic impact of parasitic infection on a specific farm. As such, ParaCalc® now offers 4 different tools that can support the veterinary advisor in tackling parasitic infections of cattle: (i) cost of worm infections in dairy herds; (ii) cost of mange infections in Belgian Blue beef cattle; (iii) treatment strategies against gastrointestinal worms in adult cows and (iv) a decision tree to detect the source of liver fluke infection on a dairy farm and to target control measures. These tools have emerged directly from published research and more work needs to be done in order to develop tools that closely fit with the specific user needs of a veterinary advisor or to integrate them in more holistic management software. However, we hope that with the continuing support of veterinary advisors and academic researchers from different institutions, ParaCalc® can become an important tool in veterinary medicine.