5 Feb 2021
MSD Animal Health has launched its annual scheme to arm farmers and their vets with test results to aid ongoing flock support.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
MSD Animal Health has launched its 2021 FlockCheck diagnostic service, allowing sheep farmers to ask vets to blood test their flock for exposure to toxoplasmosis and enzootic abortion (EAE).
A poll of farmer delegates at the online Sheep Health and Welfare Advisory Conference in November put ewe reproductive failure, neonatal lamb disease and lamb mortality were the three biggest factors limiting better flock productivity.
Results annually from FlockCheck show the majority of aborted ewes tested had been exposed to either toxoplasmosis or EAE, and sometimes both.
MSD’s veterinary advisor Kat Baxter-Smith said both diseases causing abortion could reduce the number of lambs per ewes mated – and could increase work and stress in the lambing period.
She said: “For example, toxoplasmosis, caused by infection with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, does not just cause abortion. It is also the main infectious cause of early embryo loss in sheep and a very common cause of barren ewes or weak, sickly live lambs.
”It is likely that almost all flocks in Great Britain have been in contact with this endemic parasite, which means all breeding sheep should be considered at risk.”
The subsidised FlockCheck diagnostic service allows vets to identify whether toxoplasmosis or EAE (or both) are likely to have been involved in any aborted lamb losses, barren ewes or numbers of weak, sickly lambs. This would aid the decision for (and identifies the potential value of) pre-tupping vaccination programmes.
Farmers interested in taking part can be directed to contact their veterinary practice. This year’s FlockCheck scheme started on 1 February 2021 and runs until 30 June 2021.
