Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
(N/A)
BURLINGTON,VT 05405
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Pests and parasites of grazing livestock such as gastrointestinal worms, pest flies, and ticks, are transmitted in the pasture and are a significant production challenge for farmers. They also impact human health and wellbeing by transmitting disease. Livestock pesticides may be used to mitigate these risks; however, these pesticides have negative consequences for beneficial pasture invertebrates and ecosystem health. Insect decomposers, such as dung beetles and soldier flies, contribute to pasture ecosystem services including nutrient cycling and pasture fertility, and naturally suppress livestock pests and parasites that breed in dung. With more cattle out on pasture and an expansion of the 'grass-fed' industry, it is important that we develop and test more integrated strategies for the control of pests and parasites of grazing livestock, to minimize pesticide inputs and support beneficial invertebrate biodiversity and environmental resiliency.This project aims to develop a protocol for grazed pasture ecosystems that measures the risk to livestock and human health from pests and parasites, along with monitoring the biodiversity of beneficial pasture insects. There will be a focus on identifying tick risk in grazed pastures, including reporting on the spread of the invasive Asian Longhorned Tick through the Northeast, and how livestock and habitat management influence tick transmission and the associated livestock and human health risks. Ultimately the project will develop and test a Grazed Pasture Integrated Pest Management ('GP-IPM') assessment that can be used by farmers and veterinarians to monitor pests, parasites, and beneficial invertebrates on their pastures, and offer management strategies to mitigate these risks while improving pasture biodiversity and environmental outcomes.Cattle pasture Tick Risk will be measured on 20 farms in Vermont and New York State using blanket dragging, where a white cloth sheet is dragged through the pasture and ticks attach to it because it mimics the body of a passing animal. The data will show which tick species are present in pastures at which time of year (April - November) and highlight habitat and management strategies that are associated with reduced tick risk. For example, comparisons will be made between open pasture, edge, brush, and woodland habitats, and between farms using different grazing management such as continuously grazing, or using rest and rotation. The GP-IPM protocol will be developed by working closely with five farmers in collaboration with two large animal veterinarians, industry partners, and our team of research and extension specialists. The assessment will provide a 'Risk Rating' of gastrointestinal parasites, pest flies, and ticks on the pasture, along with a beneficial invertebrate biodiversity survey ('BIBS') report. Management recommendations will be provided as part of the GP-IPM report to offer farmers sustainable strategies tailored to supporting their whole pasture ecosystem.This project will increase collaboration between farmers, veterinarians, research and extension specialists, and industry, to help incorporate multiple tactics that benefit our agricultural landscapes, reducing pests and pesticide inputs while improving beneficial species, environmental outcomes, and livestock and human health.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
50%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
This ARDP applied research (single function) projectis a multidisciplinary, multistate effort to develop an ecosystems level Grazed Pasture IPM (GP-IPM) assessment.It will address the Plant Protection Tools and Tactics and Diversified IPM Systems CPPM focus areas, and Applied Research Program Area Priorities (i) to develop tools and tactics needed for pest management systems through monitoring and decision support, and (ii) increased understanding of interactions among tactics. Specifically, it will develop a new GP-IPM tool to monitor pest and beneficial invertebrate populations, support management decisions, and increase understanding of interactions between pests, parasites, beneficials, and management practices, to offer farmers sustainable management recommendations tailored to their whole pasture ecosystem. The three main objective align with national roadmap goals [a, b, and c]:Cattle pasture Tick Risk - identify tick species present on cattle pastures, associated animal and human health risks, report on invasive Asian Longhorned Tick, and investigate how tick populations are influenced by grazing and pasture management. [b,c].GP-IPM development phase - develop a protocol for holistic GP-IPM assessment, conduct on-farm trials, collaborate with stakeholders to create report and cost-effective management recommendations. [a,b,c].GP-IPM refinement phase - work with participating farmers and veterinarians to incorporate feedback into the protocol, conduct second on-farm trial, produce final GP-IPM assessment, and evaluate outcomes. [a,b,c].This project partners research and extension specialists in agronomy, ecology, entomology, and IPM, large animal veterinarians, and farmers working across VT, NYS, NH, and MA.By increasing collaboration, the goal is to help farmers incorporate multiple tactics that benefit the whole pasture ecosystem, reducing pests and pesticide inputs while improving beneficial species, environmental outcomes, and herd health.
Project Methods
O1: Cattle Pasture Tick Risk. Between September - December 2024 project team members will collaborate with 20 grazing dairy farms across VT and NYS. Biweekly sampling will be carried out between April-November 2025, to allow tick populations and associations between climate, habitat, and grazing management to be determined. Ticks will be collected from the environment by blanket dragging using white cloth sheets (1 m × 1 m) that are dragged slowly across the vegetation and turned over every 5 m to remove and collect ticks. Collected ticks will be placed in plastic sample bags containing moist paper towel and taken back to the laboratory for identification. Specimens of H. longicornis will be reported to the US Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for the National Asian Longhorned Tick Situation Report. Vegetation and climatic data, and grazing sward height will be measured at each collection. Sampling will be repeated the following year (April-November 2026) to obtain data for multiple seasons. To collect data on actively feeding ticks that are attached to livestock, farmers will be asked to self-report the presence of ticks on their animals and confirmed cases of tick-borne disease, and any tick treatments they have applied. This will be achieved with a 5-minute questionnaire conducted by a team member with the participating farmer once per month on one of the regular sampling visits.The data will be a time series of tick populations (calculated as ticks per 100m2) over two grazing seasons for cattle pastures in VT and NYS, allowing statistical comparisons between farm type (organic or conventional), grazing management (continuous or rotational, sward height), and vegetation structure (open pasture, edge, brush, woodland). Analyses will be carried out using the R statistical package. The number of ticks caught on each sampling date will be used to assess seasonal activity. A generalized linear model will be performed with month as an independent variable and tick abundance as the dependent variable, with a negative binomial distribution for count data, and Tukey multiple comparisons. To measure climatic impacts (e.g. temperature and humidity), non-parametric rank correlations of detrended tick abundance with climatic parameters will be calculated using Kendall's Tau (T) correlation coefficient. To analyze relationships between tick abundance and habitat and grazing strategies, a negative binomial generalized linear model will be used with tick abundance as the dependent variable and habitat, grazing strategy, and sward height as independent variables. This will reveal how pasture and grazing management impact tick activity and identify strategies with reduced risk.Knowledge impacts will be measured by pre and post season evaluation surveys with participating farmers and collaborating veterinarians, carried out in person at farm visits and team meetings. Questions will be designed to measure the participants knowledge of tick risk on their pastures, related IPM strategies, and their perceptions of these practices.O2: GP-IPM Assessment Tool Development Phase. Between September - October 2024 project team members will collaborate with five grazing dairy farms in VT and NYS. Th team will work closely with farmers to develop the GP-IPM and stakeholders will advise on protocol development and provide feedback on the assessment and report. The GP-IPM assessment protocol will be developed into a finalized form between October 2024 - January 2025 and will be sent to collaborating farmers and vets for a protocol development meeting to be held at the end of January. Once stakeholders and team members are satisfied with the protocol plan, on-farm trials of the whole assessment will be conducted between June-August 2025.The on-farm assessment will include Fecal Egg Counting (FEC) for internal parasites of cattle using the mini-FLOTAC technique will be used whereby 5 g samples of thoroughly mixed cattle dung are homogenized in 45 ml saturated saline (specific gravity 1.2) and poured into a fill-FLOTAC containing two ruled grid counting chambers. This is left for 10 minutes to allow parasite eggs to float to the top, and then a hand tally counter is used to record the total number of eggs in each chamber. Pest flies will be monitored on 10 randomly selected animals in the herd at a distance of 3-5 m, by a trained observer areas of the body where horn flies, face flies and stable flies feed. Body Condition Score (BCS) will be recorded for 10 randomly selected animals in the herd while conducting fly counts. Tick activity will be surveyed in the environment by blanket dragging using a white cloth sheet (1 m × 1 m) that is dragged slowly across the vegetation and turned over every 15 m to count and remove ticks.Beneficial invertebrate biodiversity (BIBS) will be measured through a dung survey. Five 2-3-day old cow pats will be randomly selected in the pasture and observed from a 2 m distance to estimate beneficial fly populations. Then, the pat will be lifted from the pasture, placed into a white tray, and broken up for hand searching. Invertebrates will be identified, recorded, and removed from the tray as they are found. Searching will continue for 5 minutes for each dung pat.An individualized report on the results of the GP-IPM assessment will be created for each farmer. Using recognizedaction thresholds, a Risk Rating will be calculated for pests and parasites, and a BIBS Score will indicate the abundance and richness of beneficial taxa. The final pages of the report will comprise management suggestions to support pasture ecosystem, herd, and human health. These will be developed as a collaborative effort combining the project team members. An advisory meeting will be held in November 2025 to review the 5 reports and discuss innovative, practically feasible, and cost-effective management strategies. Completed reports will be mailed to collaborating farmers in January 2026. A final report development meeting will then be held to receive evaluation and feedback on the completed reports.Impacts will be measured by in-person pre and post season evaluation surveys with participating farmers and stakeholders, including survey questions designed to measure perceptions of the new GP-IPM assessment, investigate whether farmers adopted IPM practices or reduced pesticide use as a result of the assessment, and what was learnt from increased collaborations between research and extension specialists, farmers, and veterinarians.O3: GP-IPM Assessment Tool Refinement Phase. Feedback and advice from participating farmers and vets will be incorporated into the assessment tool. A second on-farm trial will result in finalized reports and the final GP-IPM assessment protocol. Outcomes, cost-benefits, and impacts will be evaluated with stakeholders. Finally, pest, parasite, and beneficial insect population data will be analyzed for each farm and compared over the two trial years using Wilcoxon signed rank tests for paired differences across repeated measures. This will give an indication of changes that have occurred in pest, parasite and beneficial insect populations that may be associated with environmental and management variables. The data will also be useful for understanding correlations between Body Condition Score, Fecal Egg Counts, and fly burdens on cattle, for the purpose of identifying immune compromised or unthrifty animals for targeted treatment.Impacts will be measured by multiseason evaluation surveys with participating farmers and stakeholders. The surveys will be carried out in person at farm visits and team meetings to reduce time and labor burden on participants. Questions will investigate whether farmers adopted IPM practices or reduced pesticide use over the 2 years and what was learnt from increased collaborations between research and extension staff, farmers, and veterinarians.