Veterinary Services

• Listeriosis in cattle and sheep
• Overview of bovine mastitis
• Sheep scab confirmed in more flocks following the introduction of Sheep Scab (Scotland) Order
• Fowl cholera spreads from wild birds to domestic poultry
• Yew poisoning in a cow and a mare

Disease alerts

The following conditions featured in the SAC C VS report for April 2010. Given similar climatic and management conditions, they could also be important this year.

• Cases of bovine neonatal pancytopenia (bleeding calf syndrome)
• Neonatal calf deaths due to colisepticaemia, rotavirus and Cryptosporidium infections
• Outbreaks of polyarthritis in lambs due to Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. dysgalactiae
• Neonatal disease in lambs associated with inadequate absorption of colostral immunoglobulin
• Louping ill affecting ewe hoggs

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The cold weather and lying snow that was a feature of December continued into the early part of January, particularly in the North and East of Scotland. However, milder and wetter conditions prevailed across all areas by the middle of the month, with drier and colder weather returning for the final 10 days. Rainfall for the month was as much as 25% below the normal for much of the country.  In recognition of the potential impact that the extreme winter conditions may have had on nutrition of pregnant ewes, SAC C VS re-introduced its discounted ovine metabolic profiling.

The Scottish Government launched a consultation on draft legislation that would require farmers with herds of breeding cattle to test for BVD.  This is part of a wider programme to eradicate BVD from Scottish herds.  Meanwhile Scotland’s Chief Statistician published the Scottish farm Income Estimates 2010, which showed that total farming income rose 18% in real terms, as compared with  2009, to £618 million.