The bovine lungworm, or Dictyocaulus viviparus, inhabits the lungs of cattle causing a disease known as husk. The symptoms include coughing and an increased breathing rate. Severely affected cows may be reluctant to move and struggle to breath with some heavy infections leading to death. Of course, all of these symptoms are accompanied by production losses and decreased animal welfare which both have an impact on farmers. The cost of an outbreak has been estimated at about £140 per cow in the herd.

Traditionally, lungworm was a disease which affected young cattle in the south-west and the Midlands. Over the few decades there has been a shift in the pattern of lungworm epidemiology with an increase in Scotland and northern England. In 2014 the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs and the national disease surveillance networks such as APHA released a statement expressing concern at the increased incidence of lungworm in these areas. Not only did the number of cases increase, but there were more cases in adult cows, potentially increasing the economic damage caused during an outbreak.

Here to discuss the changing picture of lungworm epidemiology is Cat McCarthy. She is coming to the end of her PhD during which she has developed a forecasting tool to predict lungworm outbreaks. This tool is based on laboratory work examining how lungworm larvae react to different temperatures and rainfall conditions. She recently published an article “Controlling lungworm disease in dairy cattle” in “In Practice” available via this link: https://inpractice.bmj.com/content/39/9/408.