Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) News
One foot in front of another – getting sheep lameness under control
WHEN one of his clients told him he’d had enough of lameness in his flock, Alistair Crozier of Parkside Vets in Dundee knew that it was time for a plan. He’d been asked to participate in a multi-vet, multi-farm study looking at lameness control, and this was an enterprise which could really benefit from targeted help. In the two years that followed, the affected farm has dramatically reduced its lameness problem from 9% to less than 0.6%. In a recent Sheep Veterinary Society meeting in Perth, Alistair shared his experiences of using the Five Point Plan to achieve this great success.
The farm in question has three groups of sheep – some pedigree Blue Faced Leicesters, some North Country Cheviots on the hill and a group of commercial mules and Texel crosses. The overall cull rate was around 30%, with 5% of the flock being culled for lameness. There was no evidence of contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD) in the group, but 9% of the adult sheep had scald, footrot or shelly hoof. 8.5% of the youngstock were also lame. Using the agreed national strategy for controlling sheep lameness, the five point plan, to score the enterprise gave a score of only five, of a possible 25.
To turn things around, a number of changes were implemented at the beginning of 2021. A water bath was added in advance of the medicated footbath to reduce contamination and improve its efficacy. The whole flock underwent vaccination against footrot.
A move to homebred replacements was planned to increase control over resilience and disease spread. A location was identified suitable for holding lame sheep minimising contamination of pastures with the infective organisms. Other actions underway include work to improve handling areas, gateways and walkways. Ensuring these areas are dry and/or easily cleaned is important for hygiene. And finally, individual lame sheep were all quickly isolated, treated and, critically identified and recorded.
Within six months there was evidence of a good improvement. Lambs from vaccinated dams were less frequently becoming lame, with the percentage affected now down to 5.3%. Despite fears that aggressive culling might lead to a problematically high culling rate, in practice after what happened
- the output, less lame sheep of serial offenders. Once these had been culled, the rate dropped significantly, underlining the value of identifying and recording these individuals. A repeat of the scoring showed that the farm now scored 19 out of 25.
A year after the plan was implemented, lameless dropped by a further 2.3% to 3%, predominantly affecting sheep which had been housed over winter. While some animals still had to be bought in, these were sourced from farms with minimal lameness issues or where a control plan was in place, and the purchased animals were run on ground separate from the main farm.
The most recent review of the farm carried out this summer found lameless dropped a further 1% to 2% despite an interruption in footbath use due to external circumstances. A costing was carried out showing a reduction in lameless per ewe from £6.35 to £3.90 within 18 months, a suginificant saving.
Finally, antibiotic usage has also come right down, with no lambs requiring treatment this year. A full analysis will be carried out at the end of this year, but an overall drop of around 15% in antibiotic usage has
been seen so far, a great demonstration of good antimicrobial stewardship being underpinned by proactive steps.
What have Alistair and his client learned?
Apart from the self-evident value of putting the plan in place, there have been some useful insights. Injection-site reactions were not as frequent as the client had anticipated. Booster vaccination in the autumn remains important – holding back vaccinating the retained animals until store lambs were sold on led to increased lameness in that group. Individual records are more valuable than spray marking lame sheep – some recur months later, after the marker has faded. And overall, that integrating vaccination into a wider practical control plan creates the biggest impact on lameness, combining with all of the other benefits of improved welfare, productivity and efficiency to result in a more resilient and profitable flock. This project was carried out thanks to support from MSD Animal Health and Livestock Health Scotland.