Those who may wish to conduct research on the topic of animal health can now apply to a new fund to do so, after the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) announced the opening of a new research call.
Minister of State at the department Martin Heydon opened a research call worth €5.65 million yesterday (Thursday, April 6), which is being conducted by the European Research Area Network (ERA- NET) as part of the International Coordination of Research on Infectious Animal Diseases (IRCAD).
The money will be provided by nine funders from eight European countries, with €600,000 of it to be provided by the DAFM.
People looking to conduct this type of research can now apply online via the department’s portal, which will remain open until June 1.
Applications may relate to any animal health topic, although the call will take a particular focus on parasitic worms, known has helminths.
According to the DAFM, helminths are found in all grazing livestock species and they have developed resistance to all major classes of anthelmintic drugs.
“Current estimates show that helminth infections cost the European livestock industry more than €1.8 billion per year, with drug-resistance costing at least €38 million per year in production losses and treatment costs,” it said in a statement.
Mitigating this anthelmintic resistance in livestock is also a key goal of this research call, through further investigation of its detection as well as vaccine induced protection. Speaking on the opening of the call, Minister Heydon said:
“Parasitic infections in livestock are damaging from an animal health perspective which has a knock on impact on overall farm profitability.
“That is why funding has been made available for successful Irish researchers to participate in this European research call and collaborate with their peers to find improved ways of dealing with these parasitic worms,” he added.
The research call also includes scope for monitoring changes to the distribution of animal disease resulting from climate change, and modelling and forecasting the impacts of climate change on the spread of infectious livestock disease.
The IRCAD has said that not only could this type of research improve animal health and welfare, but it could also bring associated benefits to public health, the environment and the economy.
Further details on the research and applications can be found on the department’s website.