Back to winter

The winter has come early this year and I understand that many of you have had to deal with frozen pipes and tractors that have been reluctant to start. I am sure that you do not want to be troubled by too many stock matters this month as there are not enough hours in the day to cover your daily tasks.

Copper deficiency in Hill Sheep

One thing to be aware of in December is that the effects of low levels of copper on hill pastures and in home produced fodders can be overcome if prompt action is taken before your ewes get into the second part of their pregnancy. Ewes can cope quite happily with copper deficiency until the spinal canal of the foetus starts to develop. Without copper the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerves is not able to form properly and the resulting lambs will suffer some degree of paralysis of their back legs that is permanent and does not respond to any treatments. All we need to do is to take six to ten blood samples, depending on the size of your flock, for laboratory analysis so that supplements can be given before the lambs have passed the critical stage in their development.

The Dangers of Excess

With many elements it is quite safe to supplement even if you haven’t got a deficiency as any extra in the diet will pass through and not be absorbed by the animals. Copper is different as too much can be toxic to the liver and it is difficult to get the balance right as different groups of animals will have variable requirements for the element. Sometimes when the winter is harsh and the sheep are having more supplementary feed they can make up some of the deficit, but it is not wise to rely on that as you only get one chance to get it right.

Cattle with Fluke

Liver Fluke is a common parasite in sheep and cattle as well as Alpacas and Llamas now. It is the one disease that was over looked when environmental schemes were devised. Some of these encourage the grazing of wetter areas on the farm and the creation of pools and wet areas that the parasite needs to complete its life cycle. The meta cerceria spend the summer inside a small snail if the conditions are wet enough and they will start to emerge in large numbers between August and October. Once inside the host they penetrate through the wall of the gut into the abdominal cavity. It will take six to eight weeks before they reach the liver and a further six weeks or more before they lay eggs in the bile ducts that can be detected by laboratory analysis. Cattle have large livers and affected animals may not show many signs of disease until the infestation is well developed in the organ. Sheep and camelids tend to show symptoms first. In cattle liver fluke is usually a chronic disease. Affected individuals will have watery motions and gradually lose weight. These are not things that are easy to spot in the early stages

Diagnosis

After Christmas, when there will be adult fluke in the bile ducts laying eggs, cattle with liver fluke can be detected by looking at faecal samples. At best there will always be fewer fluke eggs in infected samples from cattle than from sheep. Most laboratories estimate that the sensitivity of this test for cattle is only 50%, so you will need two or three samples from an individual animal before you can say she definitely does not have fluke. The milk test for dairy herds is more accurate and has a sensitivity of 90% so should only need to be done once each year. If you fatten cattle you will get a better idea of what is happening in your herd by the reports you get back from the abattoir. It is best not to ignore these. It might well be that you will not be penalised much if part of the liver is trimmed, but it does mean that at least one animal has taken longer to get to slaughter weight and next year you might get more livers condemned.

Control Strategies

In theory you should be able to control fluke by careful pasture management and draining any wet areas that the cattle use in the summer. This can be challenging and expensive to do in practice so it is inevitable that you will have to use some drugs to control the parasite. There are various treatments that can be used. The most effective ones that destroy the early stages need to be given as a drench. The ones that are easier to give by injection or as a pour on are really designed to work on the adult stages of the parasite. Let us know if you think that you might have problems developing with fluke and we will work out a strategy to control it.

The Badger Consultation

Just a reminder that the DEFRA consultation on the possible badger cull will come to a close on Wednesday the 6^th December so please make your views know through the web site before then. Every month at both of our surgeries we get a glossy magazine from the RSPCA. I am never sure why they send them, we certainly have never paid for any. At the moment they are making a big noise about the badger cull. They state with confidence that previous consultations have showed that 95% of those who responded were opposed to a cull of any sort and they imply that there will be a similar outcome this time. They say that ´Scientific evidence proves a cull would have limited benefit on the disease, and in surrounding areas outside the cull it may increase the disease in cattle. Although we agree there is a problem with bovine TB, we believe a recently approved TB vaccine for badgers combined with increasing the levels of cattle testing, improving bio security and imposing stricter controls on the movement of cattle are the most effective ways of reducing the incidence of bovine TB´ The RSPCA make it easy for their readers to support their campaign and can supply a pre drafted letter for readers to send to their MP.

Will it work?

I am not at all sure what they mean by stricter movement controls and increasing the level of cattle testing. If you are under movement controls at the moment you might want to disagree with the views of this organisation.

Milking with Gloves

Do you wear gloves when you are milking? Apparently only two thirds of milkers wear gloves. The chances are if you are in the minority at this time of the year, apart from the bacteria on you hands you will have chapped and cracked hands as our skin cannot cope with constant washing, detergents and the cold weather conditions. Cracked hands are the result of too much moisture and not enough moisturiser. As the skin’s natural protective barrier breaks down the bacterial population will increase. Wearing nitrile gloves has been shown to reduce the bacterial count on hands by as much as 87%. This is a good time of the year to start wearing gloves for milking so why not give it a try.

Return to Newsletters