Genomic technology helping to battle costly parasite
By Kate Ayers
Staff Reporter
James Wasmuth, a researcher in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, is developing a drug to combat costly pathogens in cattle.
Wasmuth is using genomic technology to examine a parasite’s DNA, in order to find an effective drug to fight it.
“One aspect of my research program is to develop new drugs to treat parasites of livestock and specifically helminths – parasitic roundworms – which cost the Canadian cattle industry an estimated $210 million a year,” Wasmuth said in today’s university release.
“This is in lost production as well as treatment.”
And parasites certainly are a cause of concern for North American beef producers.
“There is a reasonable parasite burden in Alberta. Thankfully our climate stops it from being quite as serious of a problem as it is in the United States,” Karin Schmid, beef production specialist for Alberta Beef Producers, said to Farms.com today.
“What we don’t really know is the extent to which our parasites are developing resistance. This is a huge problem in the U.S. I know there is work going on at the University of Calgary and the University of Saskatchewan to try and figure out how bad the problem of resistance actually is.”
Transmitted through the soil, roundworms live in the cattle’s intestines and feed off their host. This parasitic relationship may result in weight loss, diarrhea, slowed growth rate and anemia.
“There’s no doubt that parasitical infections cause considerable reductions in growth and performance. So, effective treatments are very important,” said Schmid.
Unfortunately, few drugs are currently available to treat the parasites, so “we’re seeing the emergence of parasites that are resistant to these drugs,” Wasmuth explained.
“At some point, these drugs are going to be ineffective. When that happens, the estimated cost to the Canadian cattle industry is $1 billion, which is a pretty big problem.”
Wasmuth has received over a million dollars in funding for his project. The goal is to “to go from genome to drug” over a three-year period.
He wants to identify key components in the parasite’s chemical makeup through genomic and CRISPR technologies. Wasmuth’s next step will be to find a drug compound that attacks a specific protein in the parasite, according to the release.
Computer algorithms will then screen millions of drug compounds to examine if they have an effect on the worm’s biology.
“I’m not promising a wonder drug. I’m saying we will identify up to five things that could be the next wonder drug and then we need to team up with an industry partner to go from what we think will work, to what will actually work,” Wasmuth explained.
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