The best way to deal with ticks, according to Shane McGettrick, is to identify where the problem is on your farm.
Shane was speaking at the Teagasc National Hill Sheep Conference on Thursday, February 24, at the Clayton Hotel in Co. Sligo.
McGettrick is a laboratory manager with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Co. Sligo.
Shane said: “We have a lot of tick borne diseases in Sligo, Donegal and north Mayo – and in the countryside in general.
“Some, but not all ticks can carry disease and one disease that we see cropping up is tick pyaemia.
“Tick pyaemia has two main forms that we have seen. The first one is death in young lambs.
“These are lambs that are still suckling ewes and are out in tick-infected pasture where the tick infects them with a bacteria. This bacteria goes around and causes septicemia, which causes the lamb to die.
“The other form we have seen it present itself as in lambs, which is a more chronic condition, is where lambs get abscesses where it develops over time.
“One condition we see in this part of the country [northwest] in hill-sheep flocks is louping ill.
“Louping ill is a virus that is spread by ticks. It increases mortality in a flock, and we have seen it in two forms.
“The first one being sudden death, where the sheep shows no symptoms. Then sometimes we see lambs have had nervous signs.
“It’s [louping ill] very specific to certain areas and by certain areas I mean corners of fields.
“It’s not something that necessarily is in a big wide geographic area and that’s why it makes it very hard for us to identify.
“Farmers know that they have something going on in a field and that when they let lambs into a certain part of a field at a specific stage of the year, that they run into trouble with these lambs.”
Dealing with tick-related diseases
When asked what was the best way to deal with tick-related diseases, Shane said: “There are various spot-ons available, but I’m not sure how effective many of them are.
“I think the most important thing to do when dealing with a tick problem on a farm is to try and identify where on the farm there is a tick problem.
“Contrary to what many believe, ticks are not just found in boglands. Ticks like dense foliage, so the borders of fields where there’s hedges. They need moisture but they also like to hang around where there’s long grass and good hedge cover.
“It’s usually in the corners of fields where problems tend to occur. It’s also worth pointing out that some farms will have healthy ticks on their land, that don’t carry diseases.
“The best way to avoid the problem is by identifying where the sheep were when the problem occurred and a pattern will develop over time and then you will know where to avoid grazing to avoid these problem ticks.”