Indigenous Anti-Parasitic Plants: Contributions to biodiversity and agricultural sustainability |
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Funding Body | Ministry of Science & Innovation (MSI) |
Total Contract Value | |
Start Date | January 2007 |
End Date | July 2009 |
Principal Investigator | Dr Marion Johnson |
Staff Involved | Dr Marion Johnson |
Improving biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is vital to New Zealand?s ecological and economic sustainability. Land managers facing opportunity costs with no guarantee of economic benefits are unlikely to abandon current strategies of high chemical applications to livestock and land. However, the current unsustainable practices will prove costly in a rapidly changing marketplace that now demands an environmental validation of a production system.
However, the control of parasitic infections provides one of the major challenges to stock farmers. This study evaluates the effectiveness and practicality of utilising naturally anti-parasitic indigenous plants. Incorporation of these plants into the agricultural landscape might protect stock from parasites and provide nutritive value. It will alter the manner in which the land is managed and provide many environmental benefits whilst simultaneously allowing producers to meet premium market standards for low-chemical environmentally responsible farming.
A lungworm (Dictyocaulus spp) assay was developed to screen selected native plants for in vitro activity against Dictyocaulus, the most important parasite in farmed red deer in New Zealand. Four species were then trialled in vivo, being fed red deer as browse in controlled indoor experiments.