Badger Found Dead Survey

The Welsh Government has been carrying out Post Mortem examinations on road casualty badgers in the Intensive Action Area since the vaccination project started two years ago. Presumably this is the only way that they can monitor what is going on in the animal that is the source of the infection for both beef and dairy cattle. They will need this information to monitor the effectiveness of the vaccination programme in badgers and will be hoping to discover more clean badgers as time goes on. So far they are pleased with the survey so they have extended the scheme to the whole of the rest of Wales. If you should happen to be in Wales and see a dead badger by the side of the road please do not touch it but make a note of where it is and phone the Animal and Plant Health Agency on 0300 303 8268. They will be able to take calls during office hours and will endeavour to collect carcasses for post mortem if at all possible.

The Situation in England

It is some years now since a similar survey was carried out here before we were in a tuberculosis hot spot. I remember then that it did generate several extra whole herd tests when positive badgers were found near a farm with cattle. I do not remember any cattle reactors from these tests, but it is at least an early warning of something being not quite right. The English scheme did not seem to go on for very long, casualties were reported to a man in Gloucester who would come and collect them. This seemed to be a long journey as presumably some of the reported badgers would not be found. I think it soon became apparent that most of the road casualty badgers found in Shropshire were showing signs of tuberculosis so the survey was abandoned. I think this was wrong as it is a missed opportunity to find out what is happening in the badger population.

Lost Opportunity

Badgers are creatures of habit. They have pathways that generations of badgers have used so they tend to cross roads and get run over in the same places year after year. Surely if infected badgers have been found for several years and now this years casualties are clean that must tell us something. Also as the infected red areas on our maps spread forever east and north like a stain on blotting paper surely it would be better to do something to detect the spread of the infected badgers before the infection gets established in our cattle herds. Also there must be some benefit in monitoring the surviving badgers in the two cull areas as the Animal and Plant Health are desperate to publish any positive news.

Bird Flu in Yorkshire

You will have heard that Bird Flu has turned up in Yorkshire and it is the same H5N8 strain that is active in Holland and Germany. H5N8 is an infectious strain to poultry that readily passes between ducks chickens and geese. This sort of bird flu cannot be passed on to people, meat from infected birds is quite safe to eat, but that doesn’t stop people by passing the poultry counter in the supermarket.  Reported symptoms are, reduced egg production, swollen heads, sneezing and in the later stages the head and neck start to go blue and death will follow. The affected farm in Yorkshire had 6,000 ducks and it sounds as if their bio security measures were good. There were no imports of birds from the continent, but this is the time of year when geese and swans migrate from the Netherlands so the thought is that that was how it got here. So far there have been no reports of further cases in Yorkshire, but this week there is news of 43,000 chickens affected at a farm some fifteen miles from the original Dutch case that started several weeks ago so it can lay quiet and crop up some distance from other infected farms. At the moment samples are being taken from flock across the country, including here in Shropshire to see if this strain of avian flu can be detected. Normally the virulent strains are easy to find as there will be noticeable signs in most flocks. Farms with free range birds have been asked to keep their birds in as it is impossible to stop contact with wild birds when they go outside. When birds are confined their egg production tends to drop and this can make it difficult to detect the first signs of the disease. If you have any concerns about your hens or ducks particularly if you find more than five birds dead on one day please phone the Animal and Plant Health Office in Shrewsbury on 01162 787 451 so they can arrange for the relevant tests to be carried out.

The Orf Vaccine

MSD report that they are still having problems with their ORF vaccine Scabivax Forte. We did manage to get sufficient supplies early in the year but now there hasn’t been any at all for the past five months. There are supplies of a similar vaccine in Ireland that is made by a company in New Zealand. This isn’t licensed for use in the UK but we can get hold of it on a special import license so if you are likely to use the ORF vaccine next year one way or another we should be able to find some as long as you can give us a bit of notice as we will need to get the paperwork sorted before you can use it.

Testing Milk

I am amazed by the number of things that can now be detected from a simple milk sample. If you milk cows you have the opportunity to discover if there is anything that might be getting established in your herd that will eventually need to be dealt with. Laboratories now can detect small changes in the samples we send in so even if you just have two or three cows affected by a disease in a herd of three hundred cows we will be able to find them. The first tests were developed for BVD, IBR and Leptospirosis, these are still available. Many of you test your milk for fluke each year as it is anearly warning that some cows are passing eggs in their faeces infecting the rest of your herd.

Zoonotic Disease Detection

I have never used the bulk milk to detect Johnes disease as this is a new test. Johnes disease can take some time to develop and can readily be missed. If you have had Johnes disease diagnosed before you will be aware of what it is and take care not to breed from the off spring of any confirmed cases. The disease can get established if you miss the first ones to scour so this screening test will be useful to establish your herd’s health status.

The Rest

 Bulk milk samples can also detect Neospora, Ostertagia and the Schmallenberg Virus, and lungworm.Husk larvae cause a reaction when they work their way through the body before they arrive at the lungs. Cows will not always cough when they have lungworm, often there is more weight loss than cough and it is a reason for cattle to fail to realise their full production potential.

The newest milk test can now detect the BVD antigen which shows if you have a cow excreting the virus in your herd. When we send in bulk milk samples we hope for negative results. Some things may not have a significant effect on the health of your herd, but it is always better to know what might be there so we will have the opportunity to monitor them and deal with things in due course.

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