Veterinary Services

• Suspected blue-green algal toxicity kills dairy cows
• Parasitic bronchitis commonly seen in young cattle
• Review of bovine and ovine fasciolosis over last sixteen years
• Parasitic gastroenteritis the most common diagnosis in sheep
• Enteric pathology in pigs including spirochaetal colitis and swine dysentery

Disease alerts

The following conditions featured in the SAC C VS report for November 2008. Given similar climatic and production conditions, they could also be important this year.

• Scour and abortions due to Salmonella Dublin in cattle
• Outbreaks of pneumonia in dairy and beef calves and adult dairy cows
• Flukicide resistance suspected in two sheep flocks
• Septicaemia in pigs due to Streptococcus suis serotype 1/14

General Introduction

It was a very wet month in much of western Scotland, with over twice the average August rainfall recorded. Most southern and western areas had less than normal sunshine, whereas the Northern Isles and east coast areas had around 110 per cent of the thirty-year average. Mean temperatures were 0.5 to 1.0 degree Celsius above the 1971 to 2000 average.

There were fewer animal poisoning incidents in Scotland in 2008 than in 2007 and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS) reported fewer incidents of death, deliberate abuse and cases requiring investigation. The WIIS is operated in Scotland by the Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), with inputs from SAC C VS.

SAC urged pig keepers to keep anyone with clinical signs of influenza away from livestock. This followed publication of a Code of Practice and a free influenza testing service by SAC and VLA. The aims are to prevent accidental spread of human virus to pigs and early detection of such infection if it occurs.