Sam’s trip to a bovine transfer unit in Canada

This month Oakhill Farm Vet Sam travelled across the Atlantic to Alberta, Canada to visit a bovine embryo transfer unit.

Sam had an interesting insight into the bovine industry there…

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The main industries in Alberta are oil and beef.
Alberta has the second largest total farm area in Canada.
Alberta’s feeder cattle (steers and heifers for feeding or slaughter) account for 59.6% of the national total and the beef breeding stock accounts for 42.3%.
The predominant breeds that were dealt with at the embryo transfer unit were Angus, Charolais, Hereford and Simmental.
Typical herd size was 200-300 cows.
Artificial insemination is common practice in the beef industry.

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The climate is very challenging in the winter. Temperatures can plummet to -20°C to -30°C in January when pedigree herds are calving! Keeping water troughs thawed out and keeping on top of frost bite damage to calves’ ears were particular challenges. The region consists of very marginal grazing land with some barley grown. In mid-may the grass had only just started to think about growing, whilst back home many 1^st cut silages were over and done with!

Cattle handling facilities were excellent; hydraulic squeeze crushes were the norm in the region allowing for safe and efficient handling. The cows were of a moderate size with excellent maternal characteristics. Calving ease was a very important trait selected for by farmers. Calves with a birthweight over 100lbs (45kgs) were not retained for breeding irrespective of pedigree. Meat quality is important to the Canadians; marbling is a very desirable feature.

Due to geographical constraints, the majority of cattle travelled to the ET unit for flushing or implanting. The methods and materials used to perform embryo transfer were very similar to here in the UK.

Frozen embryos were shipped all over the world: UK, USA, Argentina, Australia, Thailand to name just a few countries. Introducing genetics into a country through use of embryo transfer is very useful in terms of infectious disease control.

For further information on embryo transfer, please contact the Oakhill Farm Team.

Mike’s trip to Barcelona dairy farms

“I was lucky enough to be invited on a HIPRA trip to Spain recently to look at their vaccine manufacturing facility near Barcelona. As part of the trip, we also visited one of the local dairy farms and had an interesting insight into dairying in this part of Spain.”

Catalonia is situated in the north-west of Spain and is a region associated more with vineyards than dairy farms!

By Spanish standards the region is warm with moderate rainfall but it felt like our summer when I was there at the beginning of April.

The farm we visited is a member of a local cooperative supplying milk to both liquid and cheese producing markets. The current milk price was 32 cents per litre (28 ppl) but the farm is in the process of organic conversion – the organic price is currently 60 cents per litre (52 ppl)!

There were 210 cows on the unit, being milked twice daily and averaging 34 L / cow / day. The cows are housed all year round and fed a mixture of zero grazed grass, maize, grass silage and lucerne – bought in feed was minimal but did include a soya blend. The move to organic is going to mean the cows will be grazed at least 2 hours every day.

The milkers were cubicle housed on straw bedding and fed a TMR once daily – there were no OOP feeders or in parlour feeding. There were 2 cow groups based on days in milk and a separate milking heifer group. Dry cows and in calf heifers were on loose bedding and fed a dry cow TMR.

Mastitis rates were low although the farm has started to vaccinate against mastitis as environmental e-coli type mastitis has been an issue in the past. The farmer now performs on-farm milk culturing of mastitis cases and no longer treats certain types of mastitis with antibiotics.

The aim is to calve heifers at 24 months and the farm is now using a mix of sexed Holstein semen and Aberdeen Angus semen across the herd. The market for Holstein bull calves continues to shrink.

Heat stress is a major issue in this region and the farm has recently installed a sprinkler system alongside fans to try and combat this. Fertility is a huge challenge during the summer and the annual number of services per conception is 2.7; worse in summer. The farm was on weekly vet visits and synch programs are used to drive submission rates.

The farm is now using automated body condition scoring technology to monitor individual cow performance – this helps identify individual problem cows but also helps to highlight trends across groups of cows.

On the vet side of things there were some interesting differences between Spain and the UK. The farmer’s vet is not allowed to sell prescription meds – instead they issue prescriptions to the farmer who buys them through a local pharmacy. The veterinary services are paid on a set monthly contract, this includes fertility work, herd health planning and call outs. The farm also uses a vet for herd nutrition and an external veterinary consultant for milk quality.

There is a strong focus on profitability, including annual costings and benchmarking all farms within the co-op.

Alongside this, the farm tries to engage with the local community and consumers by encouraging school visits and having regular open days on weekends.

Mike

Our thoughts on Calving Gates

As more clients are installing calving gates on their farms we thought it might be useful to share our thoughts on them….

QUICK-RELEASE YOKE – a yoke allows one person to safely and quickly calve a cow but it is vital it is a quick release design as a cow will choke to death within minutes if she becomes trapped in a yoke.

RUMP CHAIN – most setups have a chain that attaches behind the cow’s rump. It is a good idea to include some baler twine where the chain attaches to another gate / steel ring. If the cow goes down or sits on the chain, this can be easily cut.

POSITIONING – make sure there is enough room behind the cow to use a long calving jack. In addition, positioning the calving gate against another gate rather than a wall facilitates easier use of the calving jack.

CAESAREANS – most calving gates allow good access for the vet if a caesarean is needed, through either a separate smaller caesarean gate or using removable bars. We are big fans of these!

CALF ACCESS – the gate needs to be hung high enough to allow a calf to suckle even when there is a build-up of straw. Some gates are slanted at the bottom to facilitate calf access, others have a separate section that opens for this purpose.

If you would like to speak to a member of the Farm Team, please call 01772 861300

Mobility Scoring

Early identification and prompt treatment is one of the cornerstones of lameness control within the Healthy Feet Programme. Numerous studies have confirmed the benefits of early treatment and we would all accept that treating a lame cow sooner rather than later can only be a good thing.

However, treatment of these early onset cases of lameness is often delayed as other cows get prioritised at the foot trimming visit. For instance, chronic score 3 cows, acute score 3 cases and dry off trims generally make up the bulk of the cows presented to the foot trimmer, rather than the score 2 cows.

Early identification and prompt treatment often requires no extra capital investment and can make a huge difference to the number of lame cows in as little as 6 months.

There are also significant long term benefits as lameness leads to chronic bony changes in the hoof, which in turn predisposes cows to repeat lameness events in subsequent lactations.

Mobility scoring has often been seen as an unwelcome paperwork exercise imposed by outside agencies. On the other hand, we feel that monthly mobility scoring to generate treatment lists is extremely beneficial and can be a very cost effective way to tackle lameness in your herd.

We offer monthly mobility scoring through our Vet Tech service.

These visits often coincide with milking and the data is recorded through our on-farm software App.

We can then generate treatment lists for you or your foot trimmer. In addition, we can also add the results from the foot trimming records back into the software.

This allows us to monitor lameness levels, lesion prevalence and treatment success over time.

For more information about our Vet Tech Service, please call 01772 861300

FREE TESTING for watery mouth

Watery mouth is an ecoli infection of lambs that is often fatal.

During March 2019 APHA are offering FREE TESTING for watery mouth.

If you have lambs that have succumbed to this condition, please call the practice on 01772 861300 so we can arrange obtaining a sample for testing.

Sheep – The Big Five diseases

The Big Five Diseases in Sheep

Maedi Visna

Maedi Visna is a wasting disease causing chronic pneumonia. It is caused by a highly contagious virus. Most sheep are infected as lambs via colostrum or aerosol, however generally do not show signs until they are 4 years old.

The main signs are:

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Thin ewes/wasting away
Pneumonia
Mastitis
Arthritis
Reduced fertility
Smaller weaker lambs which grow poorly due to a lack of milk

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Blood tests are commonly used to diagnose MV. Selecting thin cull ewes to test will help identify the disease if present within the flock.

If you suspect MV in your flock or wish to know your MV status we can do a 12 cull ewe screen.
Please call 01772 861300 to discuss.

Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma – OPA

Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma is caused by a virus leading to a progressive and fatal infectious lung cancer of sheep. The virus is spread from infected sheep by aerosol and nasal discharge. It is often seen in older thin sheep. There is no treatment.

The signs are very similar to chronic pneumonia:

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Difficulty breathing
Weight loss
Excessive watery fluid from the nose
Sudden death
Secondary infections such as Pasteurella are common.

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Once signs are evident the disease is fatal.

The definitive diagnosis is made by post mortem examination of the lungs.

If there is suspected OPA ultrasound examination of the lungs can be considered.

Johne’s Disease

Johne’s disease is caused by a bacterium which grows very slowly and lives for a long time in the environment. It is mainly spread through faecal contamination of feed and the environment, ewes also pass it to their lambs across the placenta and in colostrum. It is the same agent that causes Johne’s disease in cattle.

Infection generally occurs early in life, sheep often do not show signs for years and act as carriers, these are referred to as ‘sub-clinically infected’.

Affected sheep suffer from:

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Severe weight loss
Sudden death
Anaemia
High parasite burdens
Affected flocks suffer from poorer production, more thin ewes and increased culling.

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Testing for Johne’s can be tricky at an individual level. There is no single diagnostic test that can detect the disease at all the stages and sub-clinically infected animals may test negative.

Blood screening groups of cull/thin ewes can be effective at identifying Johne’s disease in your flock.

Border Disease

Border disease or hairy shaker disease is a virus which causes birth defects, barren ewes and abortion. It is from the same family of viruses as BVD in cattle.

If a ewe is infected during pregnancy the virus passes through the placenta to the lamb, in some cases this causes embryonic loss or abortion. Some lambs survive and are born Persistently infected (PI). PIs shed the virus continuously and can infect other sheep and lambs. This can be a major problem in naïve flocks unknowingly buying in PIs which can then cause around half of lambs born to be affected by the disease.

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Infection in non-pregnant adult sheep is generally short lived and mild, often no clinical signs are seen.
Hairy shakers are lambs infected with the virus whilst developing in-utero effecting their nervous system which leads to trembling and incoordination. They also have long curly wool.
Some lambs are born completely normal but maintain the infection, these are called Persistently Infected animals (PI).

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Hairy shakers are usually a good way to diagnose the presence of the disease. These lambs can also be blood tested to confirm presence of the virus.

Blood testing a group of ewes can identify if the flock has been exposed to the disease and is likely to be present.

Caseous Lymphadenitis – CLA

CLA is a chronic bacterial infection of the lymph nodes resulting in abscesses. The bacteria often enters via cuts and is commonly spread through close contact when animals are housed or are trough fed. The disease can also be transmitted indirectly such as on shearing equipment.

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Infected animals have lumps often behind the jaw, in the arm pit and in the groin. These lumps are often cold and painless but can burst open and drain pus. Once they have healed and scarred over the abscess can re-occur.
Abscesses also form inside the sheep causing ill-thrift and weight loss.

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Lumps and abscesses are a classic sign of the disease and should not be ignored.

Diagnosis is either by sampling the intact abscesses and culturing the pus or by blood test.

If you would like further information, please contact our Farm Team.

Neonatal Lamb Care

Lambing time is the most crucial part of the year for making your sheep business profitable. Lamb deaths from birth to 3 days old should be less than 7% however many farms range between 10- 25%.

A major factor influencing mortality in neonate (young) lambs is ewe body condition; as this directly relates to lamb body weight, colostrum quality and quantity. It is therefore important to ensure ewes are at BCS 2.5 to 3.0, (so vertebral spinous processes only felt with pressure and transverse processes only felt with hard pressure), and they are on a rising plane of nutrition in the run up to lambing. Energy and protein blood profiles can be taken 2 to 3 weeks before lambing to ensure ewes are receiving the correct nutrition to help reduce cases of twin lamb disease.

Another major cause of neonatal mortality is watery mouth. These lambs typically are lethargic, salivate and have a distended abdomen. It is caused by Ecoli and picked up by ingestion. Treatment involves electrolytes and antibiotics but is often hopeless. Therefore the emphasis should be on prevention which involves keeping pens clean, (especially towards the end of the season), dipping navels with strong iodine and ensuring all lambs get enough good quality colostrum quickly. See below:

Always ensure colostrum is…

QUALITY

Ensure ewes in good BCS, if you’re uncertain as to the quality of colostrum; colostrum quality can be measured using a refractometer: aim for specific gravity >1.05. Only use sheep colostrum replacement (colostrum from a milking sheep farm will usually be better quality than powdered colostrum); cow colostrum can cause a fatal anaemia. Also remember to give your Clostridial and Pasteurella vaccine four to six weeks before lambing to ensure the lambs receive antibodies against these diseases. (Any ewes that haven’t had this vaccine before will need a course of two injections four to six weeks apart).

QUANTITY

200ml/kg within 18 hours of birth, with a maximum of 50ml/kg intake on each occasion.

Remember lambs in adverse weather conditions will require more colostrum or milk as more energy from their feed will be used to keep them warm.

QUICKLY

Within 2 hours of birth.

SQUEAKY CLEAN

Ensure ewe udders are clean and dry and the equipment to mix and administer colostrum is cleaned and disinfected between lambs.

QUANTIFY

We can also look if your lambs have received enough colostrum by blood testing any less than a week old.

Finally, there is continual pressure on antibiotic use. So to ensure we don’t end up with a world full of super bugs we need to be careful how we use antibiotics. Preventative use of antibiotics, such as blanket use of Spectam or Betamox LA for watery mouth needs to be reduced as this will actively select for resistance and there is pressure from Red Tractor Assurance to reduce this practice.

We recommend only using antibiotics….

- Towards the end of the lambing season, when the sheds have a build up of Ecoli.

- In triplets, when their ewe may have poorer quality and quantity of colostrum

In lambs from ewes in poorer condition, as the quality and quantity of colostrum will be poorer.

Also remember entropion, where the lamb’s eyelid is inverted causing the eye to be held shut, tear staining and damage to the eye. This is a heritable condition so affected lambs should not be kept as replacements, ewes should not be used to breed replacements and consider ram choice if a large percent of flock are affected.

If you have any questions regarding lamb care, please contact the Oakhill Farm Team.

Mastitis in ewes

Mastitis in ewes can be fatal and usually results in the end of her productive life.

The usual presentation is acute gangrenous mastitis (blue or black bag) usually caused by either Staphylococcus Aureus or Mannheimia Haemolytica. S. Aureus is normally present on the teat skin but damage to the teat ends allows it access into the teat canal and causes mastitis.

M. Haemolytica is present in the tonsils of lambs so colonises the udder during suckling. The bacteria produces toxins which prevent blood flow and cause the udder to turn blue/black hence the name. This often occurs around peak lactation (three to six weeks post-lambing) and the initial clinical signs may be as subtle as a ewe looking lame or a lamb bleating because it’s hungry. The disease then rapidly progresses.

The risk factors include:

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Under feeding ewes round lambing or ewes in poor condition, as lambs to these ewes will cross suckle or create teat lesions by over suckling.
Damaged teat end or Orf on teats
Lumps in the udder
Lambing inside (the longer the time spent inside the greater the risk of developing mastitis)
Dirty, wet pens and dirty hands when handling udder/ underneath of sheep
Harsh, cold weather

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Treatment is unlikely to save the udder but may save the ewe’s life:

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Remove lambs from the ewe and ideally artificially rear as rearing these lambs on another ewe may spread the mastitis
Antibiotic injectable AND non-steroidal anti-inflammatory such as Loxicom
A ewe that has had mastitis will be more likely to get fly strike so preventative fly treatment is essential.
There is a vaccine against S. Aureus available; VIMCO. This has to be given three and five weeks pre-lambing. Most of the trial work has been done in dairy ewes and it is licenced to reduce to the incidence of subclinical mastitis. Potentially this could also help to reduce the incidence and severity of black bag in your flock however at the moment there is limited evidence to prove this.

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If you have any questions regarding mastitis in your flock, please contact our Farm Vet Team.

Extended liver fluke season and climate change

Fascioliasis

An important stage of the Liver fluke life cycle takes place in mud snails and requires wet and warm conditions (above 7 – 10°C) during the summer months. Over the last couple of years unseasonal weather has seen these conditions well into autumn and winter. This means that sheep and cattle are still being infected later in the season and more frequent testing and treatment may be required.

Fascioliasis can have a serious financial impact on a sheep farm with immediate losses up to 10 per cent caused by acute/subacute disease. Chronic disease could half profits by reducing lamb crop and increasing ewe mortality. Lack of treatment in cattle will lead to reduced growth and yields and discarded milk if treatment is no targeted.

We recommend testing your sheep and cattle for the presence of Liver fluke. Treatment needs to be targeted at your flock/herd and will vary from farm to farm. Please discuss your individual requirements with your vet to develop a treatment plan for the coming months.

Border Disease

Border disease or hairy shaker disease is a virus which causes birth defects, barren ewes and abortion. It is from the same family of viruses as BVD in cattle.

If a ewe is infected during pregnancy the virus passes through the placenta to the lamb, in some cases this causes embryonic loss or abortion. Some lambs survive and are born Persistently infected (PI). PIs shed the virus continuously and can infect other sheep and lambs. This can be a major problem in naïve flocks unknowingly buying in PIs which can then cause around half of lambs born to be affected by the disease.

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Infection in non-pregnant adult sheep is generally short lived and mild, often no clinical signs are seen.
Hairy shakers are lambs infected with the virus whilst developing in-utero effecting their nervous system which leads to trembling and incoordination. They also have long curly wool.
Some lambs are born completely normal but maintain the infection, these are called Persistently Infected animals (PI).

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Hairy shakers are usually a good way to diagnose the presence of the disease. These lambs can also be blood tested to confirm presence of the virus.

Blood testing a group of ewes can identify if the flock has been exposed to the disease and is likely to be present.

This month Oakhill Farm Vet Sam travelled across the Atlantic to Alberta, Canada to visit a bovine embryo transfer unit.

Sam had an interesting insight into the bovine industry there…

For further information on embryo transfer, please contact the Oakhill Farm Team.

“I was lucky enough to be invited on a HIPRA trip to Spain recently to look at their vaccine manufacturing facility near Barcelona. As part of the trip, we also visited one of the local dairy farms and had an interesting insight into dairying in this part of Spain.”

Mike

As more clients are installing calving gates on their farms we thought it might be useful to share our thoughts on them….

Early identification and prompt treatment is one of the cornerstones of lameness control within the Healthy Feet Programme. Numerous studies have confirmed the benefits of early treatment and we would all accept that treating a lame cow sooner rather than later can only be a good thing.

We offer monthly mobility scoring through our Vet Tech service.

FREE TESTING for watery mouth

Watery mouth is an ecoli infection of lambs that is often fatal.

During March 2019 APHA are offering FREE TESTING for watery mouth.

The Big Five Diseases in Sheep

Maedi Visna

Maedi Visna is a wasting disease causing chronic pneumonia. It is caused by a highly contagious virus. Most sheep are infected as lambs via colostrum or aerosol, however generally do not show signs until they are 4 years old.

If you suspect MV in your flock or wish to know your MV status we can do a 12 cull ewe screen.Please call 01772 861300 to discuss.

Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma – OPA

Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma is caused by a virus leading to a progressive and fatal infectious lung cancer of sheep. The virus is spread from infected sheep by aerosol and nasal discharge. It is often seen in older thin sheep. There is no treatment.

Johne’s Disease

Infection generally occurs early in life, sheep often do not show signs for years and act as carriers, these are referred to as ‘sub-clinically infected’.

Border Disease

Border disease or hairy shaker disease is a virus which causes birth defects, barren ewes and abortion. It is from the same family of viruses as BVD in cattle.

Caseous Lymphadenitis – CLA

CLA is a chronic bacterial infection of the lymph nodes resulting in abscesses. The bacteria often enters via cuts and is commonly spread through close contact when animals are housed or are trough fed. The disease can also be transmitted indirectly such as on shearing equipment.

Lambing time is the most crucial part of the year for making your sheep business profitable. Lamb deaths from birth to 3 days old should be less than 7% however many farms range between 10- 25%.

Always ensure colostrum is…

QUALITY

QUANTITY

QUICKLY

SQUEAKY CLEAN

QUANTIFY

We recommend only using antibiotics….

Mastitis in ewes can be fatal and usually results in the end of her productive life.

The usual presentation is acute gangrenous mastitis (blue or black bag) usually caused by either Staphylococcus Aureus or Mannheimia Haemolytica. S. Aureus is normally present on the teat skin but damage to the teat ends allows it access into the teat canal and causes mastitis.

The risk factors include:

Treatment is unlikely to save the udder but may save the ewe’s life:

Fascioliasis

Border disease or hairy shaker disease is a virus which causes birth defects, barren ewes and abortion. It is from the same family of viruses as BVD in cattle.

To discuss with our Farm Team further, please contact us

If you suspect MV in your flock or wish to know your MV status we can do a 12 cull ewe screen.
Please call 01772 861300 to discuss.