Mud scours more common in wet

For more than five years Agriculture Victoria’s animal health and welfare team have used a database known as ADMIS (animal disease management information system) to collect and report on diseases of livestock in Victoria. From this, they analyse disease trends regionally and time phases.

This can be a useful tool to verify what we are hearing and seeing anecdotally out in the field.

In wetter years with persistently muddy conditions, as we are seeing this year, we consistently see a build-up in the incidence of cases of Yersiniosis, which has the appropriate colloquial name ‘mud scours’. Interestingly, Yersiniosis is rarely diagnosed in dryer years.

Yersiniosis is a bacterial infection that can infect cattle and sheep. In dryer years this infection rarely causes any ill health in your animals and goes unnoticed.

When an animal is under stress or there is already damage to the gut wall (such as with a large worm burden) Yersiniosis can become a problem. Muddy, unhygienic conditions favour its build-up in the environment.

In these situations, signs of ill health are most seen in the younger stock.

Typically, you may notice a history of ill-thrift and ongoing scouring that has not responded to drenching.

The good news is most stock recover from the infection and become immune to the disease. Some deaths may occur in your stock but treatment with antibiotics is generally successful.

In the meantime, there are things you can do on your property to prevent losses from Yersiniosis and other similar diseases. Optimising nutrition, practising good parasite control, minimising stress, and where possible avoiding muddy, unhygienic conditions, will help protect your stock.

It is important to remember that other causes of ill-thrift and scouring can look like Yersiniosis, so it is best to contact your veterinarian to investigate these cases.