With facial eczema incidences in livestock increasing, a research team has found a solution that is environmentally friendly and could save the Australian agriculture industry hundreds of millions of dollars
While eczema may be a largely harmless skin condition for humans, it could be deadly to livestock.
In livestock the condition is caused by a fungus that resides in pasture, known as Pseudopithomyces chartarum, which releases a toxin into the bloodstream of animals when they feed on affected pasture.
Known as sporidesmin, the toxin can severely affect animal livers and can cause photosensitisation of skin when hit by UV.
Senior scientist at AgResearch New Zealand, Tanushree B Gupta, says it can cause skin peeling and the development of red patches on the animals’ bodies.
“This is much more severe than facial eczema in humans and is very painful for the animals,” she says.
Affecting both sheep and cattle, Gupta says this disease already causes a substantial economic burden on New Zealand farmers, with estimated losses of more than $300 million per year and is becoming more prevalent in Australia.
“The high prevalent areas are currently New Zealand and parts of Australia, but it has also been identified across the globe in South Africa, South America and some parts of Europe and China,” Gupta says.
According to the senior scientist, current treatments include harmful substances that are toxic to the environment and can cause other issues for livestock.
To combat this, Gupta has been assigned as the leader of a research team that aims to reduce the germination of fungal spores in pasture, by developing an environmentally friendly antifungal product.
Increased prevalence
Due to global warming and temperature shifts, Gupta believes the incidences of facial eczema are increasing – presenting challenges for farmers and painful side effects for livestock.
The disease is dependent on moisture and a warm temperature of approximately 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, she says, meaning its prevalence increases in summer.
With global warming causing heat periods to last longer, Gupta says there could be an increase in the number of months that the fungus – Pseudopithomyces chartarum – can grow in.
“In the past, there would be two to three months of high heat, but now in New Zealand we have seen high heat into March, April and sometimes even May,” the research leader says.
“This means the incidences of facial eczema could increase from three-month periods to five or six-month periods.”
With the disease affecting livestock over a longer period, farmers have to decide between applying harmful treatments – such as putting zinc in the animals’ food and spraying antifungal products onto pasture – or see their animals suffer.
Treatments and issues
Although zinc and antifungal sprays are the most common treatments to facial eczema in livestock, Gupta says they can both also have detrimental effects.
She says zinc, a heavy metal, can be toxic to animals if not measured properly prior to feeding, and the presence of it in our food system isn’t acceptable. Current antifungal sprays on pasture can kill or stop the germination of fungal spores however, they can also cause infertility in the animals and damage the soil and pasture system.
One of the main issues that farmers are finding is that their animals may die without showing any symptoms of the facial eczema – only to be revealed after a biopsy as liver damage from the sporidesmin toxin.
This can also occur vice versa, where the symptoms are present on the skin of the animals, but their liver is still functioning normally – which Gupta explains can create a treatment decision issue for farmers.
“Farmers can’t feed zinc to their animals if they don’t have symptoms because it will intoxicate them,” she says.
“However, their liver may already be damaged, even though they are not showing symptoms, so it’s a real problem.”
This means there is no timeframe on when to look for symptoms because by the time symptoms show up on the animals, their liver could already be severely damaged.
Depending on liver functionality, Gupta says some animals will die, or live with the painful side effects of skin peeling and rashes – even if their liver isn’t damaged.
Due to the deaths and the regulations of exporting animals with the side effects, Gupta says the disease can cause economic losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, with Gupta’s eco-friendly and safe antifungal product, farmers would be able to easily spray it on their pasture, potentially saving the health and welfare of the animals, as well as saving money.
Product progress
As part of her research, Gupta has tested the safe antifungal product on leaves, which she says has worked well in combatting the fungus that causes the facial eczema disease.
In light of this, she was chosen as one of seven women to be part of AgriFutures’ inaugural ‘growAg’ program, that aims to be a platform for advancing women’s research or technological innovations in agritech, and other agriculture-related sectors, to the next phase of development.
Through this program, a mentor was paired with Gupta to help understand her needs for the antifungal product, whilst also preparing her for a pitch in front of potential investors and stakeholders.
“This was a fantastic experience, and I was so grateful to be the only person involved that wasn’t from Australia,” she says.
“The program helped put my team’s research in front of investors and stakeholders, and I would like to see them uptake our product because we need their help to test the product in the field.”
These tests would involve extensive field trials in New Zealand as well in Australia to prove that Gupta’s antifungal product is a viable solution for farmers to prevent the disease that is plaguing livestock in both countries.
Although the research is mainly focused on developing a safe solution to the germination of fungal spores, Gupta says her research has revealed that the biomolecules used in the solution could also be used as a biopesticide.
“The biomolecules have been found to be effective against a range of pest and pathogens, and they can also be used to fight other fungal diseases that affect crops,” she says.
“We can use products manufactured with these biomolecules to spray on the crops and reduce those crop diseases.
“I would like to see if there’s interest from investors or agrichemical companies to see if we can provide them with safe and natural solutions.”