TBAS – the TB ADVISORY SERVICE – is back!

We are delighted to confirm that the TB Advisory Service is back in action with a new round of funding for on farm advice visits. Katie G, Nikki, and newly TBAS trained Katie P will be available for FREE visits to help pinpoint the best ways to prevent TB impacting your business.

For the first time TBAS visits will be open to all species affected by TB but will continue to focus on the 5 main control points:

1. Restrict contact with badgers
2. Manage feed and water to prevent contamination
3. Stop infected animals entering the farm
4. Reduce the risk from neighbouring stock
5. Minimise the risk from slurry

The TBAS ethos, one which we fully support, is that TB is an infectious disease and risk can and should be managed in the same way as with any other disease – every farm is capable of making changes that will improve resilience to TB.

If you are interested in a visit, then please get in touch.

Limited supplies of Spectam this year

As many of you will be aware from the farming press, there is a limited supply of Spectam available this year. This is the only licensed product available for the prevention of watery mouth in lambs. Firstly, DON’T PANIC. We do have some stocks of Spectam available and we are able to use other products licensed in farm animals if these stocks run out. Spectam will be being allocated proportionally based on your use in previous years, with any requirements above this being met by other products.

This will not, however, include the antibiotic tablets licensed in small animals which were historically used. These do not have food residue data for all the ingredients contained within them and therefore cannot be used safely in farm animals. But don’t fear, there are other oral solutions available which can be!

Whatever the product, it is important to be aware that we should only be using these products in a targeted manner and treating every single lamb at birth is not acceptable. It is therefore really important to address the following points on farm to reduce the need for antibiotics in lambs.

Colostrum

Lambs are born with no antibodies and the only way to gain protection from infections is by absorbing these antibodies from good quality colostrum as soon as possible after birth.

Lambs should receive colostrum within 4-6 hours of birth and should receive 50ml/kg per feed and 200ml/kg within the first 24hrs of life. Be aware that lambs that have assisted births or are of low body weight are more likely to struggle and should be more carefully monitored. These lambs might be targeted for antibiotic treatment as they are more at risk.

The antibodies that colostrum contains can only be absorbed from the gut in newborn lambs so it is essential that they receive enough during this period. This ability starts to reduce from 6 hours after birth and is gone by 24 hours. The colostrum from the ewe will always contain a lot more antibodies than any powdered colostrum supplement so always try to milk out the ewe first. If this isn’t possible, try other freshly lambed ewes (by 24 hours after lambing, there are very few of the important antibodies left in the colostrum) or use any reserves of frozen colostrum you have available. Always remember to carefully defrost frozen stores, never use a microwave as you’ll destroy the antibodies we’re working hard to provide!

Colostrum can be kept in the fridge for up to 7 days and frozen for up to 6 months. Always remember to milk out ewes with clean hands or wearing gloves and into clean containers.

Hygiene

Ensuring lambs are born into a clean environment and aren’t challenged by lots of bugs soon after birth makes bacterial infections such as watery mouth much less likely.

As well as mucking out and disinfecting lambing pens between ewes, also consider the cleanliness of bottle feeding/tubing equipment and ensure they are cleaned and sterilised between lambs. Ensure ewes have clean fleeces and udders by providing plenty of bedding to ensure lambs don’t ingest bacteria when suckling. Often cases of watery mouth don’t appear till later on in the lambing period when the disease challenge is higher and it is likely that most farms won’t need to use antibiotics for the first lot of lambs born.

Ewe nutrition

For ewes to produce good quality colostrum, they need to be in a good body condition score and be receiving good nutrition. Body condition scoring during pregnancy is therefore vitally important. Separating ewes according to scanning results will help manage condition and you should aim for ewes to maintain body condition score 3-3.5 from around 6 weeks before lambing. Blood sampling for nutritional profiles in the 2-3 weeks before lambing starts can be a very useful way of ‘asking the ewes’ what they think of the diet and how well it is preparing them for lambing and colostrum production.

Please do get in touch if you’d like to discuss any of these points further. We are always happy to discuss individual circumstances and advise on the best way to target antibiotic use on your farm.

Worming (or not!) ewes at lambing

Traditionally, most flocks have wormed ewes at lambing. This practice is designed to combat the drop in immunity to worms that ewes experience from around 2 weeks before lambing to 6 weeks afterwards. By worming during this time, when ewes may be shedding more eggs onto pasture, we were aiming to reduce the levels of pasture contamination for new, susceptible lambs.

Only target thin or immature ewes for worming

HOWEVER! Recent studies have shown that this practice has limited effect on egg output onto pasture in adult ewes, especially those in good body condition score. It is therefore recommended that worming treatments are targeted only to thinner ewes or immature ewes (ewe lambs and shearlings). Previous advice was that 10-20% of ewes should be left untreated around lambing. While this is still a good target for a number of flocks, within the practice we are aware of a number of flocks now only treating a small number of ewes and some none at all! As treatment is targeted around body condition score, good grazing and nutritional management is key to reducing the need to worm.

When leaving a number of ewes untreated, make sure these are spread throughout grazing groups to reduce the selection for resistance. Selection for resistance will be increased if, for example, all single bearing ewes are left untreated but then all graze together in one group. Faecal egg counts can be used to assess the need to treat in flocks and these should be carried out very close to lambing or just after ewes have lambed to ensure we are testing during the drop in immunity.

Avoid using Cydectin products

Cydectin products should be avoided for ewes at lambing. Due to the persistent nature of these products, they are highly selective for resistance. If being used, they should never be used in repeated years for ewes at lambing, nor used again that year in any sheep on the farm. If they are used for worming then 10-20% ewes must be left untreated to reduce the selection for resistance and if sheep scab treatment is required later in the year, then dipping should be used rather than repeat use of Cydectin.

Red Tractor Standards Update

Red Tractor introduced a number of changes in November 2021 for Beef and Lamb standards which we would like to make our clients aware of.

In addition to the antibiotic and health and performance reviews we have already been completing, all farms must now have a farm health plan in place that is reviewed, signed and dated by their vet annually.

BVD control plans will be required from October 2022

For all cattle farms, this health plan must include details of how BVD is managed on farm. This is currently a recommendation but will be a full requirement in October 2022. For finishing units, it may be that you only buy cattle from farms that are testing for BVD. For any breeding herds, BVD testing of calves will need to be undertaken. There are a range of options to suit all units so please do give us a call to discuss this.

All Red Tractor farms must also now receive a visit from a vet at their vet practice at least once during the year. If a vet hasn’t been on your farm during the year, please let Debbie know when booking in a review session as it may be best to carry this out on farm rather than over the phone.

Medicine administration training requirement

At least one person who is responsible for administering medicines on farm must have a certificate of competence/attendance from training undertaken since October 2016. We are currently taking names of anyone who needs to complete this training and will be looking to run a course in the New Year. Please let Debbie know if you would like to be added to this list.

There are additional recommendations around pain relief for disbudding and castrating calves. The need for these procedures should reviewed and reduced where possible. Guidelines now state:

• In addition to local anaesthetic, additional pain relief (such as meloxidyl or pyroflam) is required when carrying out any disbudding or dehorning. Dehorning is only permitted by a stockperson up to 5 months of age.
• Cauterising paste is only allowed for calves under 1 week of age and the use of pain relief is recommended for beef calves and required for dairy calves.
• Pain relief (such as meloxidyl or pyroflam) is required if castrating calves using burdizzo techniques up to 2 months of age. Over 2 months of age, a vet is legally required to castrate calves.

There is also an updated appendix on what is and is not acceptable in livestock handling. Electric goads are not permitted and it is not permitted to:

• Strike or kick any animal
• Apply pressure to any particularly sensitive part of the body in such a way as to cause pain or suffering
• Lift or drag in any way that may cause pain or suffering
• Use prods or other implements with pointed ends
• Twist, crush or break the tails of animals or grasp the eyes of any animal
• Throw or drop animal

Please book a Red Tractor review session

As there are now additional requirements for documents to be produced before inspections, please do book in Red Tractor review sessions in plenty of time before your inspection and be prepared with completed health plans and health and performance reviews (templates can be sent out to be completed before your appointment). Please also remember that these are meant to be annual reviews, not ‘just before your inspection’ reviews! It is much better to review data at the same time annually to be able to compare data….and it means one less thing to worry about when the letter informing you of an inspection arrives!