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Stevie Hay
Enzootic abortion
Chlamydia abortus is a small organism very
much like a bacteria which is spread via
vaginal secretions and placental membranes
at the time of lambing. It spreads to the
foetus via the placenta and causes abortion
and stillbirth, or may produce weakly lambs.
If infection gets into ewes prior to or around
tupping, abortions will occur or lambs will be
born weak and poor.
If the ewe is infected during the last 5-6
weeks of pregnancy or after lambing these
ewes will appear to be uninfected until the
following lambing season when
abortions/weakly lambs will occur.
Infection causing only a few abortions one
year can ultimately lead to over 30% of the
flock aborting the following year producing
‘abortion storms’.
Zoonotic
It is a very important fact to point out that
both Toxoplasmosis and Chlamydophila
are zoonotic which means they can be
transmitted to people. It is important that
pregnant women are not involved with
lambing as these infections will cause
abortion in humans.
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Vaccinate all breeding ewes and
ewe lambs with Vaccines against
Toxoplasma and Enzootic Abortion.
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All replacement animals should then
be sourced from Enzootic Abortion
free flocks (accredited) and vaccinated
before tupping.
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Keep all food stores including hay
protected from contamination by
cat faeces.
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Isolate all aborted ewes away from
the remainder of the flock. Remove
and burn all bedding from lambing
pen and disinfect between ewes.
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Keep aborted foetuses and placentas
ready to submit to VLA for investigation
and diagnosis of cause. Only by
knowing the cause can we hope to
reduce losses.
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DO NOT
foster ewe lambs which
potentially could be kept as
replacements onto aborted ewes -
there is a high chance of the cause
of abortion spreading to ewe
lambs and causing abortion the
following year.
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DO NOT
keep surviving ewe lambs
for breeding from aborted ewes/ewes
suspected of having Toxoplasma (i.e.
those which also had mummified or
poor quality dead lambs.)
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Use new Electronic Identification
Tagging to your advantage - record
abortions from individual ewes and
refer back to this information when
making culling decisions in the future.
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If you have suffered greater than 3%
of your flock aborting you definitely
need to investigate the cause as losses
can escalate the following year again.
There are schemes available such as
FlockCheck from Intervet/Schering
Plough which is a FREE diagnostic
service to test the flock for enzootic
abortion/toxoplasmosis.
Ask your Vet for more information.
ACTION PLAN
TO PREVENT ABORTIONS
AND REDUCE LOSSES
AUTUMN 2010 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
10
A N I M A L H E A L T H