The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Blinkers on September 04, 2013, 01:40:29 pm
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Tups not due in until end of month this year and still deliberating on whether to vaccinate. Would like to get a general view from others on their decisions.
Thanks all
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I seem to live at Midge Central so with luck they will all have been bitten sufficiently over the summer. :fc:
(tupping will start on 5th Oct for me, same as last year)
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I would. I would rather be safe than sorry and I think you need to do them 4 weeks before tups go in.
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the vaccine was just out in time for us, but we didn't because it can make the ram/ewes infertile for a while ( we lamb Dec. ram in with ewes July ). So we left it this year to see what will happen. We have had it 3 times anyway so we should be ok.we will vaccinate next year, early though.
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We've vaccinated ewes and cattle :)
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I had a discussion with the vet over this ....... cost is huge (vaccine doesn't keep and my cows would need two doses a month apart) and disease has only really affected those lambing early in year (ie already tupped or tupping now). The vets themselves have very little information on the vaccine... it was fast tracked through the system .
I am definitely not doing the sheep. I may need to think further about the cows and find a local farmer who has a couple of spare doses.
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I can't decide what to do either.
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We decided that we HAD to do the cows because the bull was going out right in the midge season.
We had three to do, four weeks apart, so we did three cows and seven ewes then the three cows and the remaining six ewes, so we only wasted one dose.
If it hadn't worked as conveniently as this, we might have thought twice about the ewes because we don't put the tup in until 5th November.
TBH, I didn't think the vaccine was overly expensive - if it saves one lamb, it's paid for itself. And I didn't thnk I'd cope well with deformed lambs / calves :(
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I agree with you Rosemary, We start lambing 27th December and wouldn't like lambing anything like that heartbreaking at best of times without lambing deformities
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Thanks to everyone so far. Keep voting :thumbsup:
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If we were in central Europe it'd be likely all stock of breeding age would have been infected. Because we're on the edge of the disease range they may have been ..... or not. The vaccine costs around £3.50 a head. If you have even just one lamb with SBV look at the cost of feeding the ewe in late pregnancy, possibly having the vet out for a difficult lambing due to fixed hocks in the lamb, or putting down the lamb and/or ewe if she's damaged during lambing. If the ewe goes you've got the disposal cost and, if she's a young one, all the work and money you've put into getting her to her first or second lambing, with virtually no return. Just crossing your fingers and hoping doesn't work for me.
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If schmallenburg is anything like its nearest analogues, apparently it is the sheep on the edge of the infection zone which are most at risk - those in the middle of the zone will be bitten and therefore will probably all be immune. So, you'd be safer not vaccinating in the middle of Europe than you would be in say, the lake district.
Having said that - I lamb late and have never seen it (it has affected Jan lambers here) so I wont be vaccinating.
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I have a further question .... do those of you who are vaccinating for schmallenburg also vaccinate for toxoplasmosis and enzootic abortion (both of these cause abortion and deformities and also transmit to humans) ?
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No to both of those. We had toxoplasmosis though about 6 year ago and we haven't seen it since. We keep a faily closed flock and buy from trusted sources, so i'm not too worried about enzootic. Although with two of my family pregnant at the moment they all know the dangers of being around sheep at lambing time.
It does boil down to cost, if we only had a few sheep maybe we would vaccinate and i know the it would cost a lot if we contracted either of these diseases, so head in the sand i supose. It may come and bite us on the a*** one day!!
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Just to add to your comment feldar .............. in case others are not aware .... these diseases can be transmitted on the clothes etc of person working with sheep .......... so pregnant girls you have good excuse not to touch the washing for a few months too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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An old shepherds trick is to stick a ewe who has aborted in with the ewe lambs (not yet tupped) so that they get exposed to, and immune to the disease before they get put to the tup the following year.
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An old shepherds trick is to stick a ewe who has aborted in with the ewe lambs (not yet tupped) so that they get exposed to, and immune to the disease before they get put to the tup the following year.
My understanding is that all exposed females will abort once and thereafter be immune. So the wily old shepherd forfeits the shearling's lamb(s) as being the smallest and least of all the crops she will hopefully bear.
I am happy to be corrected - but would like to read it in a journal, on the Eblex site, or similar, for confirmation, if you have a link?
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That system would only be any good if you knew the cause of the abortion in the first place - we had one this year, tested but no results - she was isolated with the rams (couldn't come straight into season - surely) and lambed 9th Aug.