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Author Topic: re accuring foot problems  (Read 16902 times)

Padge

  • Joined Aug 2009
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Re: re accuring foot problems
« Reply #45 on: September 11, 2011, 09:53:26 am »
i've watched this with interest...we too have an older ewe suffering with the same problem  and despite all very best efforts keeps recurring sooooo......she has to go   loathe to do so but has to be.....friends of ours keep pedigree Hampshires and have no issue culling pretty much at the first instance of footrot being of the opinion its an inherent problem    will only serve to infect the rest of the flock   and they don't want it  :sheep:

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: re accuring foot problems
« Reply #46 on: September 11, 2011, 12:47:21 pm »
Well I think there are as many views on this one as there are sheep-keeping and vets...  Here's mine and his.

If you cannot operate a closed flock then you want to be breeding for footrot resistance.  If you operate a closed flock you can maybe try for eradicating the disease.  It ain't easy - I suspect it's easier done where ground and climate are less wet than ours, too.

The downside of eradicating the disease from your farm is that if ever the germs do arrive, then unless you are vaccinating for footrot annually, the bulk of your flock will get an infection - and may have very little immunity or resistance to it.  Hence why I say don't go this route unless you have a closed flock.

To breed for footrot resistance, don't cull the first time she has footrot.  Treat it if you have to (some of them overcome a light dose without any or much treatment, most of ours will recover with a trim and some terramycin spray at most - and if you are trying to engender resistance, you don't want to be using antibiotic injections if you can avoid it) but if she comes down with it again, cull her.

Of course ewes which never get the disease in the first place are more resistant than those which need an infection to become resistant and ideally you'd have more of the first than the second.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

 

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