Concerns have been raised over the threat of bluetongue and the impact it could have upon the sheep sector in Ireland if cases appear in the country.
Seamus Fagan, a veterinary research officer at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Regional Veterinary Laboratories (RVL) in Athlone said that it should be a priority to manage the virus ahead of the summer.
Speaking at the Teagasc National Sheep Conference held in Athlone, Co. Westmeath this week, Fagan said: “We all have a duty to try educate ourselves. Midges carry the bluetongue virus, so we probably won’t see them for three to five months, so we have a few months to upskill ourselves on the signs of it.
“If it comes in and we don’t get it early and control it… it’ll devastate the sheep industry.”
The DAFM veterinary research officer also spoke on issues affecting flock health on Irish sheep farms, and assured those attending that “early intervention is the key”.
Fagan detailed the records needed to be kept on farms, that include:
- How many adult sheep and lambs live and die each year;
- The age of the lambs and adult sheep when they die;
- The major causes of deaths in their flock;
- Body condition score (BCS) for adult sheep and growth rate for lambs.
While all records are essential, Fagan said that “knowing the BCS is the best way of keeping a good eye of what’s going on in your flock”.
Fagan said there is “a good chance” that an issue affecting the BCS of a sheep can be as straightforward as a problem with their teeth, adding that tooth abscesses are a problem on many farms.
Flock health
The conference heard from different farmers across the country who have had various health issues affecting their flocks in recent years.
John O’Connell, a sheep farmer from Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim spoke about how his venture into expanding his flock, a process which began when he bought in ewes.
“In hindsight, I wasn’t checking out where I was sourcing them from,” he said.
O’Connell soon encountered enzootic abortions in his flock in the spring of 2015, an experience he called “soul destroying”, as there were barren sheep that should have been lambing, along with the aborted cases.
However, getting an accurate diagnosis of enzootic abortions from the RVL by sending a sample of placenta was a step in the right direction for O’Connell, who then began to plan an effective vaccination programme which eventually resolved the issue.
The vaccinations cost €8/ewe, which he quickly implemented after the diagnosis, and now continues on a yearly basis.
An animal’s vaccination history is something he is urging farmers to speak to other farmers about when they are purchasing new animals.
“It’s either that or you get out of sheep,” he said.
Patrick Dunne, a farmer in the Wicklow Mountains, spoke at the conference on how he dealt with ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA), also known as jaggsiekete or ‘wheel barrow disease’ in his flock.
OPA is an infectious cancerous tumour that effects the lungs of sheep and is spread through the inhalation of the virus from respiratory secretions.
Symptoms of OPA:
- Chronic weight loss;
- Difficulty maintaining body condition;
- Difficulty breathing;
- Copious amounts of nasal discharge.
Dunne had initially suspected pneumonia in his flock, due to the ongoing high levels of ewe mortality and poor flock performance.
However, a post-mortem diagnosis revealed that OPA had entered the flock, and the ewes were initially seprated and culled when OPA was suspected.
In June 2018 all sheep that were over 12 months in the flock had their lungs ultrasound scanned, a process that was repeated in February 2019 and again in July 2022. Ewes were culled on the results of the scan.
Michael Gottstein spoke on what occurred on the farm belonging to Brian Keane in Co. Wexford over the summer of 2023, where his flock was struck by haemonchus contortus, or Barber’s pole worm.
Each of these gastrointestinal worms is capable of removing 0.05ml of blood from a sheep.
Agriland previously reported on the infection in the flock, where the egg count of one of the lambs submitted to the local regional veterinary laboratory for post mortem examination was 21,500 eggs/g.
Barber’s pole worm is somewhat different from the ‘normal’ stomach worms that we see during the grazing season because:
- It affects both lambs and adult sheep – sheep don’t develop immunity unlike with other stomach worms;
- It is a blood-sucking worm, so often the conditions are more like liver fluke (bottle jaw and anaemia);
- It is a very prolific egg layer and egg counts are in the thousands rather than hundreds.
This is a type of stomach worm that is becoming more common on Irish sheep farms in recent years, according to Gottstein.
Keane then treated all sheep on the farm with a closantel based anthelmintic and his ewe flock was prioritised after the haemonchus infection and were put on good grass to aid in the recovery of body condition.