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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 be
sourced from enzootic abortion free
flocks (accredited) and vaccinated
before tupping. If not, the vaccine
may not be as effective. This includes
pet lambs.
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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, ideally for
four weeks. Remove and burn all
bedding from lambing pens and
disinfect between ewes.
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Keep aborted foetuses and placentas
to submit to veterinary or AHVLA
centres for investigation and diagnosis
of cause.
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DO NOT
foster ewe lambs which
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
from aborted ewes for breeding.
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Ewes that abort are regarded as
immune, although may repeatedly
abort.
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Use new Electronic Identification
Tagging to your advantage - record
abortions from individual ewes and
use 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. There
are schemes available that offer 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 2014 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
18
OV INE ABORT ION
Early pregnancy Barren ewes at scanning or returning to the ram
Mid pregnancy Mummified and aborted foetuses
Late pregnancy Weak lambs, or even normal lambs
Table 1:
Signs of Toxoplasmosis infection in sheep
Toxoplasmosis
The signs seen depend upon the stage of
pregnancy, as shown in Table 1.
Infection is only from cat faeces, so a lamb
born to a toxoplasma infected ewe is not a
carrier for the disease.
Treatment cannot be achieved with antibiotics,
although decoquinate can be fed throughout
pregnancy, however vaccination offers the
best protection. Neutering farm cats also
reduces the levels of infection.
Listeria
Usually picked up from poor silage, but can
be from soil when grazing is poor.
Salmonella and
Campylobacter
Usually from other infected animals e.g. birds.
There is no treatment and infection comes in
waves, attention to hygiene is crucial.
Border disease
More usually a cause of poor scanning
results, it relies on carrier sheep and can be
difficult to remove from the flock.
Tickborne fever
Anaplasma phagocytophilum can affect the
immune system and increase the susceptibility
to other infections.
Human health
Many causes of sheep abortion can
affect humans. Therefore it is important
that pregnant women are not involved
with lambing, or handling clothing in
contact with lambing sheep, as these
infections can cause abortion in humans.
This includes feeding pet, or weak lambs
Of particular concern are Chalamydophila
abortion and Q fever, but salmonella and
campylobacter are also problems.