P.PSH.0792 - ParaBoss - Phase II and IIa

Summary

ParaBoss delivers information products to the Australian sheep, goat and cattle industries leading to increased adoption of best-practice parasite management by producers to decrease losses from productivity, market access and animal welfare issues. This project was funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), and the University of New England (UNE), and managed and implemented by UNE.

This project ensured the maintenance and improvement of eight websites including ParaBoss, WormBoss for sheep and goats, WormBoss for cattle, FlyBoss for sheep, FlyBoss for cattle, LiceBoss for sheep, LiceBoss for cattle, and TickBoss for cattle. These sites contain industry-endorsed practices recommended for parasite management.

This project also included communication activities including an e-newsletter, Facebook pages, advisor training (workshop, conference, web forum, certificate course), a worm egg counting quality assurance program, and publication of other presentations and articles.

Objectives

The ParaBoss Phase II and IIa project aimed to maintain and deliver the existing ParaBoss material, including the ParaBoss websites and content, and develop new material, tools and training to enable ParaBoss to continue to provide national coordination for sheep and goat parasite management, as well as cattle parasite management when such content was developed.

Other deliverables included:
• ParaBoss News
• ParaBoss Technical Forum
• biennial Technical Workshop
• development of "off-line" tools (agreed change to development of responsive websites)
• a national training process to upskill advisors, service providers and producers
• extension activities
• market research
• a national database of DrenchTest results (agreed change to scoping of national database of DrenchTest results).

Key findings

The suite of ParaBoss development, extension, communication and training activities carried out by the University of New England were demonstrated to be successful in achieving an increasing use of the ParaBoss resources and generating a high return on investments to the funders through the value of ParaBoss identified by producers.

Benefits to industry

The ParaBoss products and services allow producers, their advisors, industry service providers, and educators to gain the information required to ultimately enable implementation of best-practice parasite management on Australian livestock properties.

Future research

Due to the cost of parasites, investment should continue be allocated by industry to maintain, improve and deliver the ParaBoss resources to the sheep, goat and cattle industries.