These vets make sure the kids are all right

SMALL RUMINANTS – SPECIFICALLY, sheep and goats (versus large ruminants, like cows) – are being seen more and more on Ontario farms.

The province now has 3,000-plus shepherds. Sheep and goat milk demand for specialty cheeses is soaring. As well, meat from the animals is becoming more of a grocery item, thanks mainly to new Canadians for whom goat meat was a dietary staple.

And farmers who like raising dairy animals but bristle at having their milk production regulated by the province, as is the case for cow milk, like the freedom associated with raising goats and sheep.

So herds and flocks are growing. And that’s challenging farmers and veterinarians alike to ensure the animals have the same kind of high health status as dairy cows.

Ontario is renowned for producing quality livestock that in turn create quality food products for consumers. Sheep and goat producers, who have been very methodical about organizing themselves as the industry has grown, likewise want their sectors to have the same lofty status among those who buy

those commodities.

Animal health depends on a good relationship between animals, producers and veterinarians. To that end, Ontario’s veterinary community is launching new education and research initiatives to support small ruminant production.

Since September, the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) has expanded teaching to include more information on small ruminants. As well, it’s conducting several new research projects to build up health data on the sector.

The way OVC dean Jeff Wichtel explains it, many of the new producers coming on stream don’t have experience working with veterinarians.

And at the same time, most veterinarians don’t have a great deal of experience working with small ruminants. Traditionally, the relatively small size of the sector and of its herds and flocks – and relative to dairy cows, the lower value of these animals – meant producers seldom went to the expense of calling veterinarians out to farms to diagnose the cause of a sheep or goat’s death.

Now, though, that’s changing. Milking ewes and nannies can be worth several hundred dollars. So expertise at the college is increasing with the sector’s growth and value.

In 2016, OVC graduate student Jeanette Cooper started working with a team from the college, the Animal Health Laboratory and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) on a unique knowledge mobilization research project called “Distance Support for On-Farm Investigation of Small Ruminant Adult Mortalities.”

The project is designed to increase the surveillance of infectious, emerging, zoonotic or other production-limiting diseases of adult sheep and goats on Ontario farms. A distancesupport system has been developed for online information transfer of on-farm mortalities.

The study team is working to assist and fund livestock veterinarians from afar in performing better on-farm postmortems on sheep and goats, through next August.

Samples from these postmortems – likely about 150 in total, by the project’s end – are being submitted to the Animal Health Laboratory at the University of Guelph for a broad list of laboratory tests that are targeted to diagnosing diseases affecting adult sheep and goats.

The online support, which features a secure website for veterinary practitioners only, explicitly explains how they should perform the postmortems, and what tissue samples to collect.

Participating veterinarians are being paid $175 per postmortem, and the Animal Health Laboratory will receive $400 to cover the testing costs for each animal. There is no charge to producers participating in the distance support project.

Says project leader Dr. Maria Spinato: “We’re hoping this project will build relationships between small ruminant producers and veterinarians.”

And, of course, support the drive towards the best possible animal health.