Itchy Sheep

Psoroptes ovis, the pearly white sheep scab mite can only live long term on sheep. The mite is not so active in the summer and difficult to spot until this time of the year when numbers increase and sheep start rubbing. At first the lesions are small, less than the size of a five pence coin, and the parasites can be difficult to find as they are present just at the edges of the lesions. In the winter within ten weeks of the first signs, which often go un noticed, mites can be found all over the body and quantities of wool will fall out revealing dry scabby skin underneath. The intense itching is a reaction to the faeces of the mites so trees, fence and gate posts will soon become contaminated with mites and wool.  Mites can survive on shed wool for up to sixteen days so there does not need to be direct contact for the infection to spread.

Seasonable Spread

Sheep scab will spread at this time of the year from brought in sheep that may be carrying the infection with no noticable lesions as the stress of marketing and transport to a new farm will trigger an increase in the mite numbers. Ideally any in comers, including rams, should be isolated as a group for at least three weeks before a close inspection for any signs of scab. Some farmers prefer to treat with a doramectin or a moxidectin based injection as a matter of course if the disease has been encountered in this way before. If you have the facilities a diazinol based dip is the better way to treat sheep scab as it controls any chewing lice as well which can co exist with scab and does not respond to the injections.

Coughing Calves

Calf pneumonia remains the most difficult disease to control on both dairy and beef farms. It has a significant financial impact and is estimated to cost the industry in the region of £60 million each year. You will be aware of the risk factors, but from time to time it helps to rethink how you manage things. Try to keep mixing and moving to a minimum rear calves in groups of six or ten and keep them together for the whole of the time they are on your farm. On some farms dehorning and castrating tend to get forgotten until the calves are ready to wean and move to another building. It is better to do these things before the calves are weaned so that they have only one stressful thing to cope with in any one week. Never castrate and disbud a group of calves on the same day.

Ventilation

Calves often end up in buildings that were designed for a different purpose or were constructed some time ago when fewer animals were kept inside. The tendency now is to get as much air flow as possible as long as you can avoid draughts at floor level. Enclosed buildings with poor air flow encourage viruses and bacteria to build up in the air as they cannot escape. Ammonia from dirty bedding will irritate the air way of young cattle and can lead to disease. In well ventilated buildings it should be possible to keep the humidity levels down and the bedding dry. It is important to control coccidiosis as this will inevitably lead to wet bedding and calves that are poorly nourished and less able to fight off pneumonia. Calves are well able to cope with low temperatures as long as they are properly fed.

Extra Feed

Calves need energy to maintain their bodily condition and to grow. When it is cold calves will need more energy in their diet to keep them warm. A three week old calf will require 40% more energy in the diet when the temperature falls to 0° C than when the temperature was 20° C in the summer. You should take this into consideration at this time of the year if the diet does not fulfil all of the energy needs as growth will suffer. Also remember calves need fibre to allow the rumen to develop. In the past fibre was traditionally taken in the form of hay. This is not always available now so chopped straw should be used as instead.

Watch the Dates

Take note that from the beginning of next year DEFRA are taking a tough new line to enforce its tuberculin testing rules. From January 1^st  they propose to penalise you by taking money from your single farm payment if you have a tuberculin test that is overdue by even one day. This was announced by the Secretary of State, Owen Patterson last week on the 28th November. No time has been given to comment on these plans, this is what was said.

"Late testing is unacceptable, so from January 1, 2014, anyone who fails to complete their test by the set deadline, even by one day, will see their CAP scheme payment reduced. The reductions will vary, depending on the seriousness of the case, but the outcome I want to see is no late testing at all’’.
 

Weakness in control measures       

This move by DEFRA is one of a series of measures designed to address long-standing weaknesses in bovine TB controls and reduce the risk of cattle-to-cattle transmission of the disease. They form part of the Government’s wider strategy for achieving national bovine TB-free status in England within 25 years.

Wrong Approach                              

The first that I heard about the change was on an early morning radio programme. He seemed to imply that you have a three month window to complete any testing and that any late tests are a substantial reason why DEFRA is struggling to control the spread of infection. I think this is wrong as in our area we have few tests that go more than a month over due. I feel the Secretary of State has not been fully informed about this matter as the test windows for many Short Interval and In Contact Tests is just one month. These dates are not extended when Christmas or Easter happen to occur in the month that they are due. It is very frustrating, we always process test results on the evening that the test was read. Sometimes it takes Animal Health more that two weeks to contact a farm and arrange for a reactor to be removed. It is wrong to imply that farmers are to blame for not treating this as a serious disease.   

Have Your Say                                   

There is as well a consultation starting to potentially abolish the exemption for cattle to be pre movement tested before they go to graze on common land. To phase out the practice of having an isolation unit on farms that are under TB restrictions so that you can sell young stock once they have had two clear tests. And to publish the location of farms that have had a recent herd breakdown so that farmers can make management decisions as the where they buy their stock from. The consultation will continue until the 10^th January To access the consultation, visit https://consult.defra.gov.uk/animal-health-and-welfare/proposals-for-new-bovine-tb-control-measures

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