Veterinary Services

• Production disease in dairy heifers and cows due to ostertagiasis
• Review of infectious causes of sheep abortion outbreaks in 2009
• Ewe deaths due to louping ill after returning from winter grazing
• Differential diagnosis of proliferative enteropathy in pig ileum samples
• Mass mortality in pheasant chicks due to suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

Disease alerts

The following conditions were recorded by SAC VS in August 2008. Given similar climatic and management conditions, they could also be important this year.

• Highest incidence of parasitic gastroenteritis in cattle for four years
• Clostridial diseases in cattle: black disease, blackleg and malignant oedema
• Copper, cobalt and selenium deficiencies associated with ill thrift in sheep
• Deaths in weaned pigs due to Streptococcus suis  serotype 2.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The warm, sunny conditions seen in April continued this month in northern and eastern parts of Scotland. Mean temperatures in these areas were between 0.5 and 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than the 1971 to 2000 average. Sunshine hours in these parts were between 130 and 150 percent higher than the thirty year mean, with average rainfall. In contrast, the west was wet with much of the western highlands having up to 200 percent of the thirty year mean rainfall. The Scottish Government confirmed the presence of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) on a fifth salmon farm in the South West of Shetland. The farm will be depopulated, in line with the Scottish Government’s policy of eradication of ISA.