Veterinary Services

• More cases of malignant catarrhal fever reported with the lambing season bringing cattle into close proximity with sheep.

• Type D botulism diagnosed as the cause of death of 100 ewes and five rams on two farms in Dumfries-shire.

• Haemonchosis caused death and ill thrift in two-year-old ewes in Caithness.

• Cryptosporidiosis considered to contribute to the severity of an outbreak of swine dysentery with 10 percent mortality in grower pigs (three-to-four months of age).

• Two macaws and a parrot died of asphyxiation following exposure to fumes created by mixing a two-pot metal adhesive.

General Introduction

The mean temperature for the month of March in Scotland was 5.2º centigrade which is 1.6º centigrade above the 1961 to 1990 averages. This continued a pattern of warm weather seen since the autumn. The rainfall was average over the country. The Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department confirmed a significant outbreak of bovine tuberculosis in Girvan, Ayrshire. As a result, 47 animals were compulsorily slaughtered with compensation and cattle that were previously moved on and off the farm are to be traced, restricted, isolated and tested where necessary. The index case was a cow exported to Northern Ireland that had tuberculosis-like lesions at slaughter. Bovine tuberculosis remains comparatively rare in Scotland. The SAC announced an enthusiastic start for the Perthshire Organic Monitor Farm. Balanloan Home Farm, Atholl Estates, Blair Atholl is a large hill and upland organic unit that runs to 160 spring calving suckler cows, 1,000 hill and 450 in-bye ewes with all progeny taken through to finish. Some thirty-five farmers attended the first meeting of the QMS, SEERAD and SOPA funded Organic Monitor Farm.