The trade-off between farmers' autonomy and the control of parasitic gastro-intestinal nématodes of sheep in conventional and organic farms

Summary

Farmers value autonomy in the management of their farm..Amongst organic farmers especially,auton-omy is thought tocontribute to the success of thefarm.Wider integrated farming systems howeveroppose such autonomy by making farm management décisions remotely.One of the greatest threats tothe success of meat sheep farms is thepresence of parasitic gastrointestinal nematodes.This studyquestioned whether a greater level of farmerautonomy could be correlated to the better control of thegastrointestinal nematode infections and whether this could be associated with farmer specific healthbeliefs. Data was collected across 36 meat sheep farms with similar climatic variables but with differentbeliefs and attitudes to healthcare in farming.These farms fell within three groups:French organic,French conventional and Algerian conventional farms.Information regarding farmers'health beliefs andtheir level of autonomy in management was gathered using questionnaires to address autonomy in thefollowing variables:agriculture production,husbandry,feed,therapeutics,commercialization,andfarmers' education.The intensity of gastrointestinal nematode infections was also measured on each ofthese farms using faecal egg counts on composite sheep samples.Statistical and correlation analyses ofautonomy variables to gastrointestinal nematode infection intensities were carried out.The resultsshowed farmer autonomy was notassociated with better gastrointestinal nematode control in any of thethree groups of farms studied.Greater level of autonomy in husbandry and therapeutics specifically wereassociated with greater levels of infection.Farmers across the36 farms studied were unanimouslyconcerned about the threat gastrointestinal nématodes present to their flocks. Yet their currentknowledge was clearly not sufficient to control infections irrespective of their health beliefs.This papermakes suggestions tofacilitate communication with farmers and to improve the integration of gastro-intestinal nematode control measures.