The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Marches Farmer on January 09, 2017, 09:47:15 am
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Our scanner came in on Sunday and said some of the early lambing flocks he deals with had seen some cases of Schmallenberg. There was speculation last year that it could be circulating over the Summer but I didn't see any mention of vaccination. Mine were done after the last outbreak (when we had one case before the vaccine became available).
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A local vet reported a suspected case last week (South Wales).
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Oh, dear! Something to bear in mind if you can't get the lamb out in a fairly straightforward manner.
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Oh no not another deadly disease, first bird flu then this :( hope it doesnt spread any further.....
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The sheep would have got the disease due to a bite from a culicoides midge over last Summer.
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in general sheep who are infected are asymptomatic and it is only pregnant ewes who are at risk of having a lamb affected. I understand if memory serves me right it is primarily those who are infected in the first trimester of pregnancy. Infection at any other time of the year results in an immune sheep.
I have taken the decision for a number of reasons not to put my ewe lambs in lamb one reason by giving them an extra tme period to get infected they are less likely to produce schmallenberg lambs. those who farm commercially may prefer to use a vaccine.
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Vets warning of the disease seen in early calving and lambing in Herefordshire.
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Apparently several cases have been confirmed in Carmarthenshire/ceredigion in the last few days but don't know any details
Regen
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What are the symptoms/birth colouring/looks of the abortion/aborted animal?
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not what i wanted to see on a thread on a forum after getting in :(
fookdy fook :(
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First lambing of the season today... aborted lambs 3 or 4 weeks early. Got me thinking about this thread.
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What are the symptoms/birth colouring/looks of the abortion/aborted animal?
IIRC, no real symptoms in the mother, and the youngster is sort of distorted. Legs curled tightly or curled the wrong way, face looking odd, that kind of thing. Varies a lot in severity too, so I guess could be confused with a boring old "oh that went a bit wrong" lamb. Images on Google, if you specify Schmallenburg *virus* (otherwise you get pretty pictures of a Swiss town).
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We had to have the vet in to a lambing the last time Schmallenberg was here. The lamb had a twisted spine and my daughter noticed it wasn't breathing properly. The vet euthanased it and did a PM on the spot, to find part of its lower rib cage on one side was missing. He took the lamb away and Schmallenberg was later confirmed. It can present in different ways but it's something to bear in mind if you have trouble getting a lamb out - if the lamb isn't the "right" shape it may be that that's causing the problem.
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I had a ewe abort two days ago and I believe it could be schmallenburg. If I get any more I will have tested. :( I'm in Surrey
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Our vet said it had been occurring in pockets over Herefordshire, just depending on whether an affected cloud of midgets had been on a farm at the wrong time. The only farm close to us that's had a couple of SBV lambs is in a sheltered valley - I'm hoping this may be one of those times we're glad to be on a windy hilltop.
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well - a 2nd premature aborted lamb for us this morning :( carcass is at the vets now for testing... waiting for a call back on how long that takes.
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where are you Farmershort?
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where are you Farmershort?
Northern end of mid devon.
I have just had a chat with the Vet though, and she thinks it's not SBV. She said it is certinly around here though.
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:fc:
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Last time around several local farmers had euthanased lambs tested but were told it wasn't SBV. However, none of them had seen anything like those deformities before, or since. Odd!
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Last time around several local farmers had euthanased lambs tested but were told it wasn't SBV. However, none of them had seen anything like those deformities before, or since. Odd!
No deformities on ours really... well... none that I could spot... but as they're so premature, I wasn't sure whether sbv will just cause abortions sometimes with no obvious deformity.
Sadly the lamb faeotus wasn't viable for testing... the buzzard got to it before me those morning and removed the organs. I managed to get some after birth material thought... the vet was very excited that she might be able to find some placenta to test.
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Test results back... it's toxo! :(
Nothing we can do about it now, but we'll be able to vaccinate in autumn this year, and at least we know we don't need to cull ewes.
I spoke with a neighbour farmer today, and he's had cases of toxo this year for the first time.
We certainly do have a lot of neighbourhood cats around.