Veterinary Services

• Traumatic reticulitis and death in dairy cows due to reinforced concrete wire
• Investigation of lameness in cattle housed on slats
• Four incidents of louping ill infection in sheep
• Visna suspected in an adult mule ewe
• Deaths in piglets due to clostridial enteritis
• Viral haemorrhagic disease in pet rabbits

Disease alerts

The following conditions featured in the SAC VS Report for January 2008.  Given similar climatic conditions they could also be important this year.

• Increase in pneumonia outbreaks in weaned suckled calves.
• Increase in number of bovine abortion submissions associated with poor silage making conditions in 2007.
• Abortion problems in early lambing sheep flocks. 
• Outbreaks of sheep scab.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Scotland experienced the wettest October since 1954.  The weather was also cold with a mean temperature of 7.3°C, 0.8°C below the 1961 to 1990 average.

The Scottish Government announced four new projects to provide long-term support to Scotland’s pig industry. This included the appointment of a Pig Veterinary Adviser to offer practical on-farm advice on disease control. Fears that Scottish wild salmon stocks could be at risk from the parasite Gyrodactylus salaris prompted a warning that all commercial and recreational water users should disinfect their equipment if they have been used in foreign waters.

SAC issued two parasitic disease warnings during the month. They considered 2008 could be a worse year for liver fluke disease than 2003 when an anti-fluke campaign was mounted. In addition, SAC warned there was a higher than normal risk of stomach worm damage in grazing cattle. Climatic conditions had been ideal for the hatching and survival of Ostertagia parasitic larvae.