Strategies to reduce anthelmintic resistance in livestock

Endoparasitic infections are the major cause of economic loss to the livestock industry. Treatment with anthelmintic drugs is the only option being followed all over the world leading to establishment of anthelmintic resistant populations. As a combination therapy, many measures including grazing management are being practiced for the control of the parasites. However, rare mutant genes are present in the parasites as pre-adaptive phenomena and abuse of drugs lowered the susceptibility of the parasite to the available drugs. Complete lack of understanding about the resistant status of parasites and efficient drugs for prophylaxis and treatment, hastens the development of resistance. In addition, failure to properly execute mitigation strategies is a common occurrence. The technical article aims to disseminate the knowledge to various stakeholders on parasite resistance status, adoption of existing measures unanimously throughout the country, policies to be reformed and priority research areas to overcome the resistance problem.