Veterinary Services

• Outbreak of type C botulism in beef suckler heifers
• Review of infectious causes of ovine abortion in 2009 and 2010
• Thirty-five outbreaks of nematodirosis in lambs
• PMWS causes poor post weaning weight gains in pigs
• Streptococcus gallolyticus septicaemia affects 10-day-old ducklings

Disease alerts

The following conditions featured in the SAC C VS report for August 2009. Given similar climatic and management conditions, they could also be important this year.

• Suspected blue-green algal toxicity kills dairy cows
• Type 1 ostertagiasis confirmed in six-month-old dairy heifers
• Parasitic bronchitis seen in young cattle
• Parasitic gastroenteritis the most common diagnosis in sheep
• Enteric pathology in pigs including spirochaetal colitis and swine dysentery

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Overall, mean temperatures for May were close to the 1971 to 2000 average. It was a dry month across western Scotland and the Borders where only about half of average rainfall was recorded. Sunshine hours were close to normal.

The Scottish Government announced a new monitor farm.  The farm, in Moray, brings the total of monitor farms to 25. The monitor farm programme aims to bring local farmers and the agricultural industry together to focus on farm business improvements, efficient production and better profits from livestock enterprises. SAC staff act as facilitators for several of the monitor farms and the local veterinary surgeon is included in the team supporting the project.

SAC C VS issued a news release warning farmers of a high risk of disease in lambs due to infection with Nematodirus battus. After a cold spring, any warmth in early May could encourage a mass hatch of eggs laid on pasture the previous year.