It has been suspected relations between animal health problems and silage contaminated with slugs, but no scientific reports or studies is to our knowledge available on this field. This project aim to study the impact of intermixture of slugs in grass silage on hygienic and chemical feed quality, and relate this to possible animal health risks. The practical work is defined by the following work packages:
- WP 1. Produce different types of silage in lab- scale intermixed with no versus various amounts of slugs and different ensiling methods for microbiological and chemical studies.
- WP 2. Gain knowledge of the microbiological and chemical composition of soil, grass, slugs and silage prepared from pastures highly contaminated with slugs and relate the results to milk quality and health problems.
- WP 3. Study the effect of feeding slugs (Arion lusitanicus) withClostridiumandListeria, to see if the slugs could be possible vectors for these pathogenic bacteria.
- WP 4. Advice farmers, veterinarians and authorities on preventive efforts and production of safe and tasty silage in areas of high sluginvasion.
Research partners
- Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)
- Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (Bioforsk)
- Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH)
- The Norwegian Agricultural Extension Service (NLR)
- National Veterinary Institute- Sweden (SVA)
- Tine
- Addcon
