Animal Health

Taking precautions against incoming vehicles, and keeping visitors to your livestock buildings to a minimum, are both an important part of protecting your herds from the spread of disease.

The latest antibiotic usage figures for the UK pig industry show that levels remain unchanged last year, despite significant disease challenges.

Scientists from the Pirbright Institute say they are one step closer to finding a vaccine for African swine fever, as a recent trial found all immunised pigs were protected from severe disease.

Deosan HH+ is the latest product to join the Deosan range and aims to effectively target lameness, an issue that is currently costing the dairy industry more than 1p per litre of milk produced on the farm, according to AHDB.

The risk of blowfly strike has now risen to ‘medium’ in parts of southern and central England, according to real-time updates produced by Elanco and the National Animal Disease Information Service (Nadis).

Last winter may have seen a relatively low incidence of fluke across the UK, but there are still individual farms reporting problems with chronic fluke in sheep warn SCOPS/COWS experts.

A European sheep network is calling on farmers and others in the industry to share their challenges and needs in a bid to improve flock health, nutrition and management practices.

Ceva Animal Health has launched Cattle Ruminations on Lameness – a Virtual Roadshow to enable registered mobility scorers and qualified foot trimmers to catch up on CPD during lockdown.

The first cases of blowfly strike in 2020 have been reported in several locations in the UK via the Elanco Blowfly Strike Tracker.

Wearable biosensors are being developed to help monitor the health of livestock, particularly dairy cows, with the aim of identifying the disease brucellosis at an earlier stage.

Farmers, conservationists and firefighters alike are united in their pleas to stop releasing sky lanterns in support of the NHS, owing to the dangers they pose to livestock and wildlife.

Coccidiosis causing oocysts can build up during the housed period, increasing the risk of both beef and dairy calves contracting the disease as spring progresses.