Page 76 - Demo

An ode to dung beetles and finding a
wildlife haven on a Cumbrian Dairy Farm
Claire Whittle is The Regenerative Vet offering a bespoke, holistic Veterinary consultancy
service to farmers transitioning towards agroecological practices. Whether she is advising on
parasite control or the benefits of biodiversity for animal health, Claire advocates for healthy
livestock as part of healthy farm ecosystems that benefit people and planet.
Since childhood I have been fascinated
by nature. It was probably part of my
decision to become a farm vet, getting to
spend a lot of time outside. But it was the
discovery in 2020 that we had dung
beetles in the UK after reading Isabella
Tree’s Wilding - The Return of Nature to a
British Farm that I began to think of
veterinary practice differently. Not only
was I surprised to discover we have dung
beetles, but I was also troubled to find
out that the worming products I
prescribe to livestock can have
devastating impacts on them. From lethal
effects, killing them outright to sublethal
in smaller doses, affecting their ability to
reproduce amongst other issues. It was
likely that in prescribing these products I
was contributing to their downfall within
populations that were already struggling.
Of over 60 types of dung beetle in the UK,
half are considered endangered or
nationally scarce.
I had no idea.
Why had nobody ever told me this? It
didn’t feature in the parasitology lectures
at university nearly a decade earlier. It
had never been mentioned by the
pharmaceutical companies who
manufacture the drugs and even more
interestingly, in my then 6 years as a vet,
across 3 practices, none of the other vets
had mentioned them either.
I began to look for more information -
and despite the fact there were many
papers on the effects of mainly
avermectins, (Macrocyclic Lactone or
Clear wormer products) on dung beetles
- there was not much information on
what we as vets were able to do to
mitigate these impacts. After posting
about my newly-acquired knowledge on
X (formerly known as Twitter) I was
contacted by James Allen, a beef and
sheep farmer. James had a plan. And he
was looking for a vet….
James, who had discovered dung beetles
at a workshop run by Entomologist
Sally-Ann Spence had reached the same
conclusion as I - that there was not
enough information easily available to
farmers or vets on how to protect dung
beetles. So he had joined forces with
Sally- Ann, Bruce Thompson - an Irish
Dairy Farmer and Nuffield scholar whose
report looked into the environmental
benefits of dung beetles and Max
Anderson, a PHD student looking from
the University of Sussex. Between them
they were creating ‘Dung Beetles for
Farmers’, an online resource designed to
improve the conservation status of dung
beetles across the UK by providing
pragmatic and evidence-based
information to land and livestock
managers. My role would be to provide
veterinary input to enable farmers to
manage their livestock in a dung beetle
friendly way. Bingo!
So in 2021, during lockdown - www.
dungbeetlesforfarmers.co.uk was
launched. And the response has been
phenomenal. It seems that people are as
fascinated by these tiny but mighty
ecosystem engineers as much as I. Dung
beetles provide huge benefits including
natural parasite control in our cattle. In
drinking the liquid portion of cow pats,
they dry it out and render the
environment unsuitable for parasitic
worms to complete their lifecycles. One
study shows they can reduce worm
burdens on pasture by up to 30%! They
also have a symbiotic relationship with
another insect - phoretic mites. These
tiny mites do not fly themselves but use
dung beetles as aeroplanes to fly from
pat to pat. As predators, these tiny mites
then consume other things within a cow
pat including those parasites that affect
livestock such as nuisance fly larvae.
How incredible is that?
They also have huge environmental
benefits. They have been shown to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
improve water infiltration and nutrient
cycling, soil aeration and even sequester
carbon as the tunnelling beetles pull the
organic matter of a cow pat underground
into which they lay their eggs and in
doing so, reduce pasture fouling. They
are also a vital food source for other
creatures. Our wading birds - Lapwing,
Godwit and Redshank have all had dung
beetle wing casings found in their faeces.
There are larger populations of Greater
Horseshoe bats when livestock are found
within 4km of their nesting sites. They
rely on species of dung beetle that fly at
dusk to feed their young, even owls have
been known to eat them. But most of all,
they demonstrate so importantly why
livestock are an integral part of our
landscapes, not only for the food and
fibre they provide for us but also for all
Shorthorn
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CLAIRE WHITTLE