NORTH – TOM WOOLACOTT
The arrival of spring became apparent whilst hurrying from one farm to the next as we launched into lambing and calving season. The stereotypic British trait of discussing the unpredictable weather certainly hasn’t been neglected either! Schmallenberg virus (SBV) continues to prove challenging, accounting for a large proportion of our obstetrical visits recently, often resulting in caesareans. Virus transmission is closely linked to midge activity, typically peaking during periods of high temperature and rainfall in late summer/early autumn. Midges biting at days 25-50 of pregnancy in sheep and 62-180 days in cattle are most likely to cause fetal abnormalities. Spring-calving herds must remain especially vigilant. APHA are continuing to offer free-of-charge surveillance so please do contact us if you have any animals born with suspected malformations or deformities. It is approaching a year since the clients of Orchard Veterinary Group joined Synergy. I have had the privilege of working with many of our Glastonbury clients – thank you all for being so welcoming and receptive!
CENTRAL – BELLA LOWIS
It is great to be back out working and catching up with everyone after my maternity leave. We are starting to see the sun a bit more frequently and animals are being turned out. Many farms have been taking advantage of the government funding available under the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. This has provided opportunities for us to carry out more in-depth health planning and disease surveillance. We have used the funding for investigating health issues, reviewing antibiotic usage, and testing for infectious diseases amongst other things. Going into the grazing season we will be busy with parasite control plans and wormer resistance testing. Don’t forget to keep those worm egg counts coming in and ensure that fly cover is in place. Monitoring growth rates by regular weighing of youngstock will help to identify any problems early.
EAST – NIM PANESAR
It is important to watch out for disease risks associated with lush pasture for grazing animals at turnout, particularly grass staggers. Watch out for early signs (twitching, restlessness, staggering gait) and treat with subcutaneous magnesium as soon as possible, though these usually progress very quickly. Make sure cows are receiving enough magnesium supplementation in the diet. It would be good to also submit WECs and have a fly control strategy in place as the warm wet conditions are ideal for gutworms and flystrike. This month we will be starting bull fertility testing with a few mammoth days of 30+ bulls on the Plain already lined up, ready for the start of the breeding season. Please get in touch if you would like to book your bulls in, it would be helpful for the diary to have the dates fixed up in advance. Thank you to everyone who came to the recent lameness meeting, we hope you found it interesting and rewarding. Louise is planning a beef farm walk in the summer so keep a lookout for that when the date is confirmed. Olly and I are also organising a meeting for Romsey YFC later this month which hopefully will be a fun and entertaining evening!
WEST – KEITH CUTLER
Spring is definitely here and over the past couple of weeks I have attended several difficult calvings and lambings. Most of these cases can be resolved with a little patience, some manipulation and lots of lube – you can never over do the lube! Deformities have been common as Tom highlights above, and many are likely caused by the Schmallenberg virus. Currently there is little that can be done to prevent this. A vaccine is not currently available, although once infected cows will maintain immunity – probably for several years. Fly treatments may be useful to prevent infected midges biting cattle or sheep, but these are contact-killers, so midges will have to land on a treated animal, and bite it, before being killed. Perhaps we should construct a line of wind turbines all along the coast to increase green-energy production, so that they can be reversed during the midge season to blow all the pesky critters back to the continent!
LYMPSTONE – ROSE YOUNG
A full month back at work after my third (and final!) maternity leave has seen a thorough reintroduction to Devon farm practice. It’s great to be back catching up with the Lympstone team and getting to know the wider Synergy Family. A double calf embryotomy a few weeks back sparked a deeper interest in Schmallenberg (SBV) and its presentation, particularly in cattle. I have been making use of APHA’s funded surveillance to follow up an ongoing case in a beef herd which had fertility issues at scanning, typical SBV deformed calves, but also abnormal live calves born this spring. Coming towards the end of what seems like the longest winter on record, we have inevitably seen some metabolic and trace element issues in cattle kept inside a lot longer than usual, especially with dwindling supplies of conserved forage. Sheep are wet and miserable, with outside lambers particularly feeling the force of the unseasonal weather. Tough times all round for those needing to get livestock outside. As I write, we have seen the sun for two full days, so perhaps we can start to believe that spring is truly here.
