Veterinary Services

• Bacillus licheniformis, Listeriosis or fungal infections found in 23 bovine abortion investigations as the main spring calving season approaches.
• 75 incidents of chronic fasciolosis in sheep in January and February, compared to 30 in the same period last year
• Two incidents of plant poisoning in sheep that broke into gardens.
• Review of Spironucleosis (Spironucleus (Hexamita) meleagridis) diagnoses in game birds in Great Britain 1996 to 2007.
• Yew poisoning results in the deaths of two colts.

Disease alerts for April and May

There is an inherent lapse of some six to eight weeks between the end of the month discussed in our report and its publication in the Veterinary Record. We were asked to predict conditions that practitioners should look out for in the coming month:

    1.   Neonatal scours in calves and lambs will be to the fore. Cryptosporidiosis remains a serious cause of diarrhoea in many units.

    2.   Blackleg in young stock at grass.

3. Nematodirosis was not a feature in lambs in 2007. The challenge this spring is likely to be greater as a result of the colder spring.
4. Aspergillosis, yolk sac infections, starve-outs, salmonellosis and rotavirus enteritis in game bird chicks.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

This was the warmest February since 1998. The mean temperature for the month of 4.2°C was 2.2°C above the 1961-1990 average. It was also wetter than average at 154% of the long-term mean. The Scottish Government announced the results from the December 2007 agricultural survey. Total numbers of cattle, sheep and pigs decreased over the year by 2.4 per cent, 1.6 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively while poultry numbers increased by 4.9 per cent.