Kim Hamer

Neonatal lamb mortality has a profoundly negative impact on animal welfare and represents significant waste to farming businesses. This case report outlines an approach to addressing high neonatal lamb mortality in a commercial lowland sheep flock. The merit of this case report lies in its holistic, data‐driven approach, grounded in the realities and practicalities of farm practice. Forty percent of colostrum samples were classed as poor quality, and there was an observed trend of decreasing ewe body condition scores throughout the production cycle. Poor ewe colostrum quality was significantly associated with poor serum IgG in the corresponding lambs (p < 0.01). Eighteen percent of the 2024 lamb crop suffered from a failure of transfer of passive immunity. The hygiene of feeding equipment and stored colostrum was also poor—80% of colostrum samples collected from colostrum feeding equipment exceeded the acceptable threshold for total bacterial count (of 100,000 CFU/mL).

Salmonellosis in sheep is an infrequent diagnosis, but outbreaks do occur with abortion, diarrhoea and death possible sequelae. In this case, affecting a flock of 4000 ewes, Salmonella typhimurium definitive phage type 104 was isolated from clinical cases and a variety of environmental samples taken from the farm. The isolates were multidrug resistant with resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphonamides and tetracyclines (resistance type). During the case, three people associated with the case became unwell with salmonellosis. The direct and indirect costs associated with the outbreak were extensive, highlighting the need for effective biosecurity measures to prevent introduction into farms and within a farm once present. Vaccination for prevention is possible, although licensed products and evidence‐based protocols are not available in all countries.

Perineal urethrostomy was carried out in a Golden Guernsey goat to relieve urethral obstruction associated with urethral calculi. The surgery was successful, but post‐surgical complications developed, including haemorrhage and failure of the penile stump to heal. Revision surgeries were carried out with a successful surgical resolution. Bacterial cystitis subsequently developed, and Proteus spp. and Trueperella pyogenes were identified. Treatment of the bacterial cystitis proved challenging, and intense management was required. Survival post‐surgery was over 3.5 years.

Background: In order to improve antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), including changes in antimicrobial prescribing and use, an enhanced understanding is needed of the barriers that veterinary surgeons (vets) encounter to institute such change. Methods: A qualitative approach, using grounded theory, was followed. Interviews and discussion groups, with vets and farm industry stakeholders in Northern Ireland (NI), were undertaken to identify and explore attitudes and behaviours surrounding AMS, with a particular emphasis on the barriers vets encountered and the context within which they were working. Results: Seven inter‐related themes associated with improving AMS among their sheep farming clients were identified. The first six addressed barriers were working under commercial and practical constraints, farmer behaviour, multiple medicine sources, poor prescribing practice, a perceived lack of incentive or facilitation to improve AMS and a perceived lack of action by regulators to challenge poor AMS. The seventh theme revealed suggestions vets considered that may improve AMS in NI, including greater state intervention in recording and regulating medicine sales. Conclusions: Improving AMS will require vets and their client farmers to change behaviour. This will involve concerted effort over an extended period of time to enact and embed change. Veterinary surgeons believe that further action by the industry and state to develop centralised antimicrobial sales recording and by the state to enforce prescribing regulations will aid their efforts. However, critical to achieving this is the development of a sustainable and funded mechanism to create more meaningful farmer–vet consultation around flock health prior to every prescription to improve AMS and sheep welfare.

Flock health planning has been advocated as part of a wider drive within livestock production for veterinarians and farmers to adopt a prevention‐focused approach to veterinary medicine. This approach has, at its core, a cyclical process of assessment, evaluation, action and re‐assessment, and is documented, at least in summary, in a health plan (HP). The HP has become a defining pillar of farm quality assurance schemes (QASs), introduced to address calls for greater transparency and accountability in food production. There is limited current information on the attitudes and behaviours surrounding flock HPs in the sheep sector and the barriers to greater involvement in an active process of continual improvement through reflective flock health planning. This study aims to address these issues with reference to the national flock in Northern Ireland. A mixed‐methods approach was used to explore farmers' and veterinarians' opinions and behaviours related to QASs and HP, with data obtained through an online scoping questionnaire, semi‐structured interviews with 27 farmers and 15 veterinarians, and discussion groups with farmers and veterinarians. No evidence of a positive association between a farm having a HP and implementation of 12 industry‐recommended flock health activities was identified using the Fisher's exact test. Farmers reported a reluctance to pay for veterinary advice while some veterinarians reported a lack of time to develop HPs for farmers, and sheep‐related work generally. Farmers predominantly saw the HP as a static, physical document, which had limited impact on their management practices, rather than a proactive, reflective and collaborative planning process. Veterinarians tasked with completing HPs felt restricted by limited knowledge of on‐farm practices, flock production data and a lack of confidence in the accuracy of on‐farm medicine records. This led some to believe that the HPs may fail to address critical issues. A new approach to engage farmers and veterinarians together in active flock health planning needs to be developed. This will need a sustainable delivery plan. Then the focus can be shifted towards ongoing reflective health planning to drive change for the betterment of sheep health and welfare.

Background: Management of pain is critical to improve the welfare of farmed livestock and meet consumer expectations. There is limited published information about the use of analgesic drugs in the sheep sector. Methods: A mixed‐method approach was followed. The range of analgesic drugs used on 52 Northern Irish sheep farms was determined through analysis of medicine purchase records. Through interview and discussion groups, with both farmer and veterinarian participants, attitudes towards the use and adoption of such medicines were explored. Results: The use of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was widespread and highly variable. One‐third of farmers in the sample did not purchase any NSAID. Meloxicam was the most commonly purchased NSAID by mass (72%) and standardised dose (73%). During interviews and discussions, farmers outlined the benefits they saw in using NSAIDs and how veterinarians influenced their uptake of these medicines. Use of corticosteroid was evidenced on 50% of the farms that supplied medicine records for analysis. Conclusions: Veterinarians can influence farmers to adopt NSAIDs for the provision of analgesia in their sheep and farmers observed the benefits they delivered. However, many farmers are still to be reached with this message, perhaps due to being largely self‐sufficient and rarely engaging with veterinarians. Veterinarians have the opportunity to challenge farmers about the provision of analgesia, especially when farmers seek antibiotics for painful conditions such as lameness. Currently, the lack of an authorised product in the UK, with associated treatment guidance and industry promotion, may limit veterinarians’ confidence in prescribing drugs for pain control in sheep.

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