Veterinary Services

• Review of causes of bovine abortion from 2004 to 2009
• Salmonellosis in cattle causing milk drop, abortion and calf pneumonia
• Nematodirosis, haemonchosis, lungworm infections and chronic fasciolosis diagnosed in sheep
• Continuing spread of outbreaks of swine dysentery in pigs
• Histomonosis and “Round Heart Disease” in turkey poults

Disease alerts

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

• Severe cases of  infectious bovine rhinotracheitis with secondary bacterial pneumonia in beef cattle
• Many cases of Johne’s disease in dairy and beef cattle
• Acute and chronic fasciolosis in sheep
• Disease in pigs due to various serotypes of Streptococcus suis

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Mean temperatures in Scotland during September were 1.3 degrees Celsius above the 30 year average. Rainfall totals varied across the country. Parts of the south-west had 50 per cent below average rainfall, while parts of the north-east had 50 per cent above average, resulting in local flooding.

The Scottish Government announced the random blood sampling of cattle and sheep at markets and farms to be carried out during September. This was to assess compliance with the compulsory vaccination programme against bluetongue. In early September all European Member States voted in favour of Scotland becoming officially tuberculosis free. The Scottish Government stated that it will work to ensure that any new disease controls required to maintain this status will have minimal impacts on trade.

SAC C VS offered free-of-charge postmortem examinations to investigate suspect cases of an apparently new disease,  “bleeding calf syndrome”.  The disease affects calves less than one-month-old. Affected calves have a persistent fever with bleeding from the nose, gums, ear-tag holes and injection sites.