The Government has set out a contingency plan in the event of the discovery of naturally occurring Bovine Spongiform Encephalophaphy in sheep. Every four or five months there is a scare that BSE has been found in sheep as some scientific institution investigates a strain of Scrapie that does not behave in the normal way for the disease. There is great concern about BSE should it ever be found in sheep because when it has been transmitted experimentally to sheep that are genetically susceptible to Scrapie it has been found to spread throughout the body in the muscles and peripheral nerves, so it would not be possible to reduce the risk by not offering for sale the higher risk parts of the carcass as has been the case with cattle.

DEFRA are planning for the slaughter of up to 25 million sheep depending on the time of the year that they were made aware that BSE was present in the National Flock. The only exceptions that they plan to make are adult sheep and lambs that you can prove to have a genotype that is resistant to Scrapie. These would need to be blood tested, if they have not already been done and could then be either sold for human consumption or used for breeding purposes. They would give priority to determining the genotype of the 0.4 million adult and shearling rams in the country so that a decision could be made as to how the sheep industry could be revived after this mass slaughter.

The European Union rules state that in the worst case scenario only ARR/ARR sheep under eighteen months of age and sheep that carry one of the ARR genes under six month of age can enter the human food chain. Government advisers here suggest that ARR/ARR sheep of any age are safe and sheep carrying one ARR gene are fit to eat up to twelve months of age so there is a great deal of arguing yet to be done before this matter can be resolved.

As far as I am aware the exact origins of BSE have still not been determined. The niggling suspicion is that it might well have come from an unusual type of Scrapie. On the other hand as some of our sheep were fed on contaminated protein in the same way as our cattle the danger period may well have passed. The chances are that it is our country where the infection is most likely to be found because of what happened to our cattle but it will only take one suspect case anywhere in the world to bring this plan into action and devastate our National Flock. All of this may seem like a distant threat, but most pedigree flocks are now aware of the susceptibility of their stock to Scrapie and if you can you should try to buy replacement rams that have been blood tested in the National Scrapie Plan and are known to carry the ARR gene.

There has been a further worrying development in the Cattle Tuberculosis situation. Up until now we have had a fairly small number of Tuberculosis flare ups in out immediate area and although some of you have battled with the disease for several months in nearly all cases the problem has been brought under control. It has been only on one of our farms that we have suspected that badgers may have been involved in the spread of the disease. The source of the infection never was fully determined, but we were able to alter the grazing pattern on the farm to avoid a known badger set. The farm in question has been free of the disease for some time now. There has been no sign of the disease on near by farms so I cannot imagine that there are any infected badgers there now.

You will be aware that for some time DEFRA have been carrying out post mortem examinations on road casualty badgers and there have been reports of Tuberculosis found in individuals from the areas where Tuberculosis is a real problem. It was with some surprise that I learnt this week that a badger with Tuberculosis has been found in the Minsterley area and that some farms are to have additional herd tests. Essentially if you are close to where the badger was found and you have not had a Tuberculin Test in the past twelve months a Whole Herd Test is now due. Several people have had letters already, so the chances are that if you have not had a letter yet no testing is due.

We have not done any of the tests generated by this dead badger yet, but it is a further worrying development in the relentless progression of the disease. For one local badger to be found with Tuberculosis means that there must be others and danger to your cattle will be increased. The official line from DEFRA is that things are improving as far as Tuberculosis is concerned and that there has been a fifteen percent fall in the number of farms affected by the disease. This is not the impression that I have, the disease is still running out of control and there are reports that it has become established in the wild deer population to further complicate the issue. We rely on postmortem examinations at abattoirs and by game keepers to report suspected cases of Tuberculosis in deer. For various reasons there may be a reluctance for this to happen and the chances are that the disease is far more widespread in deer than we have been made aware of.

On a happier note I have been told that Bovilis Ringvac, the Ringworm Vaccine for calves, is set to reappear at the end of July. This is well overdue Intervet have had production problems for almost a year now and ringworm have built up again on the farms where it was regularly used. This is a useful vaccine that really works to control the infection and is most useful on farms that regularly sell young stock or newly calved heifers. Most of the effective drugs to control ringworm in cattle have gone now, so it will be good to have one of them back again.

It is surprising how often it is the ram that is blamed when lambing does not go as well as you were expecting. In flocks that we have investigated this is not usually the case. The problem is more likely to be a Toxoplasma infection. Toxoplasma is a parasite carried by cats that gets either into the winter feed if it is not stored in an enclosed building or they may pick it up from pastures close to the farm. Toxoplasma does not always cause ewes to abort late in pregnancy when there is a foetus to see. If it affects the pregnancy at an early stage the foetus may be resorbed and the ewe is assumed not to have held to the ram. A high percentage of barren ewes have a significant blood titre to Toxoplasma. Fortunately there is an effective vaccine available that will give good immunity against this infection. Toxovax needs to be given at least a month before the ewe become pregnant so it needs to be planned in good time.

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