Chris Lewis

Contagious ovine digital dermatitis

AS one of the authors of the original letter describing contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD) in the UK in 1997 (Harwood and others 1997), which at that stage we called virulent footrot, I would like to comment on the editorial by Ian Davies ( VR , December 3, 2011, vol 169, pp 604–605) and the paper by Duncan and others (summarised in VR , December 3, 2011, vol 169, p 606). We were quickly corrected by our Australian colleagues that virulent footrot was well …

Schmallenberg disease in UK flocks

IT is of little surprise to read in the recent surveillance report from the APHA ( VR , January 14, 2017, vol 180, p 40) that Schmallenberg disease has been confirmed in sheep in south-west England and that there have also been reports of deformed lambs being born to other early lambing flocks. Schmallenberg virus belongs to the Bunyaviridae family, to which the closely related virus causing …

Reclassification of sheep anthelmintic

The concerns raised by the BVA and Sheep Veterinary Society ( VR , September 2, 2017, vol 181, p 223) in response to the change of classification of Startect Dual Active Oral Solution (Zoetis) from POM-V to POM-VPS showed a complete …

Testing sheep for GM2 gangliosidosis.

GM2 gangliosidosis (Tay-Sachs disease) in British Jacob sheep was reported in Veterinary Record by Wessels and colleagues ( VR , January 4, 2014, vol 174, pp 20-21). These authors described the clinical and pathological findings associated with this disabling disease, which is inherited as an autosomal recessive condition. The exact prevalence of the causal mutation in the UK flock has yet to be determined. In cooperation with the …

A practical approach to reducing losses due to drunken lamb syndrome

NEONATAL losses in lambs – particularly on occasions where much time and effort is spent striving to save them – have negative psychological effects on shepherds and also reduce the profitability of enterprises. Many conditions and diseases assail lambs during the first few weeks of life. Starvation and exposure account for a large proportion of deaths, as does clostridial disease, despite the availability of highly effective vaccines for the dam. Losses that occur once lambs appear to be well bonded during the first two months of life are even more frustrating. A late or low infection rate of toxoplasmosis will produce weakly lambs which, despite intensive attention and support, usually die at about three to four days of age. Again, vaccination of the dam can reduce this incidence to nil. Generally, these losses are both recognised by the shepherd and easily confirmed by the clinician. Perhaps the most challenging conditions for the clinician and farmer are neurological conditions complicated by metabolic irregularities encountered in the neonate and lambs up to one month old. Early attempts to determine the reasons for clinical signs concentrated …

Pinioning non-agricultural birds

I READ the letter from the Chief Veterinary Officer on the pinioning of non-agricultural birds ( VR , July 13, 2013, vol 173, p 53) with total incredulity. What is the difference between pinioning agricultural and non-agricultural birds on welfare grounds? The reasons for pinioning waterfowl are exactly the same, as an effective way to keep birds in large areas, in this case ponds, so that they can …

Prevention of Schmallenberg virus

INITIAL reports from the affected countries indicate that Schmallenberg virus is difficult to detect in aborted calves because of the length of time from infection to abortion, while in aborted lambs it is more readily detectable because of …

Fifty years working with sheep

Chris Lewis is a private sheep veterinary adviser whose involvement with sheep began as a boy living in Kent. He is a past-president and secretary of the Sheep Veterinary Society, and owns and runs a small flock of 35 breeding ewes producing quality lamb. Here, he reflects on his career

Treatment of psoroptic mange in cattle

I WAS surprised at the conclusions drawn from the recent paper ‘Failure of injectable ivermectin to control psoroptic mange in cattle’ ([Lekimme and others 2010][1]). It was suggested that one of the possible reasons for the failure was the extensive use of ivermectin in cattle and hence the

Reporting of clinical scrapie in the uk

SIR, — [Tongue and others (2006)][1] report a descriptive spatial analysis of scrapie-affected flocks in Great Britain between January 1993 and December 2002. The authors quote similar studies for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse). The distribution and reporting of cases of BSE was far more