DNA technologies are being aimed at the lowly stomach worm, the bane of sheep producers in high rainfall areas.

By the end of the year, a CSIRO teams aims to have a DNA-based test that will tell sheep producers the worm species they are dealing with, and the level of infestation, at 10 times the accuracy of current tests, with results delivered in a fraction of the time.

In time, CSIRO scientist Peter Hunt said, the test may be used for multiple functions - assessing liver fluke infestation, assessing drug resistance, assigning breeding values for worm resistance, and even for determining parentage and other breeding values that might otherwise be done in a separate test.

The pilot test to be made available at the end of 2012, through NSW Department of Primary Industry's Camden laboratories, is the culimination of about a decade's work by CSIRO and collaborating scientists.

Worm tests are conducted on faeces, a complex substance that is chock-full of DNA, including that of the animal that produced it.

Dr Hunt, who led the research, said considerable effort went into identifying sequences of DNA that provide a unique signature for each of the three species of interest - the black scour, barbers pole and small brown stomach worms.

An additional breakthrough arrived with the recent surge in molecular DNA technologies, which has allowed researchers to extract DNA from the faecal murk so that it can be assessed for the characteristic signature sequences of the parasites.

The technology will, at least initially, deliver much the same results as current worm egg count tests do, but with much greater accuracy, and a 48-hour turnaround time compared to the week currently needed.

But Dr Hunt said it is the additional possibilities that will make the technology revolutionary.

CSIRO scientist Jody McNally has been awarded a NSW DPI Young Scientists Science and Innovation award that will allow her to work on adding liver fluke to the DNA testing procedure.

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DNA targets stomach worm