Cold Spring

Every year is different. This spring has been a bit unusual as we seemed to be heading for summer with a short hot spell when the grass started to grow and the ground dried up now it has gone cold again and soil temperatures have dropped after several morning frosts. This has caused all sorts of problems anticipating when to treat lambs for nematodirus. This worm is unusual as the eggs wait in the soil and only develop after temperature rise above 10 degrees centigrade after the winter. It has an extended life cycle targeting lambs four to six weeks of age when they are growing at their fastest. It might be that you have had lambs with a yellow green scour already and given them their first drench of wormer.

Scouring Lambs

 On most farms the main wave of infection has not happened yet. When the temperatures recover in May there will be an overwhelming challenge from nematodirus larvae that the lambs will not be able to cope with. Your pastures were contaminated with worm eggs from last year’s lambs. If you have any reseeding, or fields that did not have any lambs on them last year it might be possible to move your lambs onto this grazing when it starts to get warm again to give them a chance to grow before they need their first treatment.

No Resistance

Nematodirus is such a severe disease that you would soon be aware if the drench you were using wasn’t working. So far there have been no reported cases of resistance to any of the drenches as long as you do not under estimate the weight of the older lambs. On most farms it will be necessary to repeat the treatment every three weeks three times. If you do have some clean grazing it might be possible to miss the final treatment.

Which Infection

There is always confusion when lambs scour if it might be coccidiosis instead of nematodirus or if you are very unlucky you could have a mixed infection. The peak time for lambs with coccidiosis is again four to six weeks of age. In severe cases the scour will be red or black and you might notice inflammation under the tail and that the lambs have a tendency to strain without producing any faeces. Coccidiosis is often associated with wet conditions. It is always better if you can keep moving the feeding troughs and creep feeder particularly when the grass starts to get scarce. When the ground is dry lambs will sometimes be seen to eat soil and pick up the infection that way. Late lambs are the most at risk, particularly if you use the Deccox buckets there is a tendency not to re order if you run out before all of the lambs get to eight weeks of age.

Worm First

It can be frustrating to diagnose both Nematodirus and Coccidiosis in lambs. Nematodirus is so severe worms in the gut take some time to develop enough to lay eggs and there may well be few worm eggs found in the faeces. Like wise with coccidiosis there are many types of coccidia that do not cause problems in lambs so it can be difficult to interpret the significance of the cysts present sometimes. Mostly you would probably use the wormer first and then treat coccidiosis if the lambs did not dry up.

New Testing Partnership

Well I cannot say that the transfer of TB Testing to the five companies in England has gone smoothly. Practices have had little time to scrutinise and sign the twenty seven page contract and there have already been four pages of amendments to our contract in the Midlands. Although there are many things we do not like we have signed the paperwork as there is little choice if we want to continue testing on our practice farms. The deadline has now passed and it is by no means clear how many local practices will continue to undertake work for the Animal and Plant Health Agency. In Devon and Cornwall the arguments are still raging and they have now a two week extension to resolve these issues.

Farm Letters

By now you should have had a letter from XL Farmcare Midlands explaining that the Malthouse Surgery is one of their sub contractors and has agreed to do your TB Testing so you do not need to do anything other than book your test with us in the usual way.

The wording in the letter is;

‘Your vet practice, The Malthouse Surgery, has agreed to work as a subcontractor for XL Farmcare Midlands. This means that your current practice will be automatically recorded by XL Farmcare Midlands as your choice of preferred TB testing practice. You don't need to do anything else to indicate your Keeper Choice.

You will continue to be informed about tests becoming due by letter from APHA. However, you will notice that for tests allocated after 1st May 2015 the letter will state that the test will be carried out by XL Farmcare Midlands Ltd as the Delivery Partner for the Midlands Region. XL Farmcare Midlands will then subcontract this work to your current practice.’

New Systems

Just why this new arrangement is thought to be more efficient is difficult to understand. Tests already allocated will be dealt with under the old system that will apply to some tests carried out as far ahead as August. We find ourselves in the situation of having to attend far distant meetings, at short notice, and having to use a completely new computer system as well as the Animal and Plant Health Agency system which still has reliability issues.

Old Names

To add to the confusion all of the tracing tests are sent out from Cardiff from an office that still calls itself the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency so I can understand if you have difficulties knowing who you are dealing with.

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