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Overcoming an abortion ‘storm’ in Co. Leitrim

Overcoming an abortion ‘storm’ in Co. Leitrim

With lambing a little over a month away, John O’Connell recounted how an abortion storm affected his flock in 2015 - causing an increase in barrenness, weak lambs at birth and additional stress at lambing time.

Carrying a mid-season flock of 160 ewes and a contract heifer rearing enterprise outside Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, lambing is due to commence on John’s farm on March 10th.

Speaking a part of a panel discussion on flock health at the Teagasc National Sheep Conference, John explained that it was through the purchasing of replacement stock in 2012-2013 - a time when he was trying to increase his ewe flock after departing suckler production - that abortion-causing agents, particularly enzootic (enzo) abortion and toxoplasmosis (toxo), were inadvertently introduced.

“I was buying from unknown sources in 2012 and 2013 and, looking back at it in hindsight, low levels of abortion started to occur in the flock in 2013 and 2014. These gradually increased each year and I was guilty in that I turned a blind eye to it to a certain extent thinking that it might go away, but it was worse it got,” John told those in attendance.

It was on the 28th of February 2015 that the abortion storm really kicked off, with abortions occurring on a daily basis and the birthing of weak and unviable lambs at lambing time, even though ewes were subject to an adequate late pregnancy nutrition programme. The end result being that just 86% of the mature ewes and 62% of the ewe lambs mated that year lambed.

“It was soul destroying walking into the shed every day,” John said. “It wasn’t just the financial loss; lambing is a very stressful time at the best of times when things are going relatively well, but when we had this on top it was very stressful.

“It was stressful for the whole family because we were trying to save weak and unviable lambs; but, if there was any kick of life in them, you were trying to keep them going,” John said.

Diagnosis and vaccination programme

As enzo was suspected, the in-lamb ewes and ewe lambs were treated with oxytetracycline and this antibiotic treatment did “dampen” the rates of abortion. However, it was only following testing through the local Regional Veterinary Lab (RVL) that an appropriate vaccination programme could be implemented. Enzo was diagnosed as the primary cause, while toxo was also found to be circulating within the flock.

“After I got a definite answer that there was a major problem with enzo and a certain amount of toxo, I blanket vaccinated all ewes and ewe lambs retained for breeding 4-6 weeks before introducing the rams and that worked out in the region of €8.50/ewe.

“That was a big cost on top of the lambing season that had just passed. It was a double whammy really because I had such a poor sale of lambs and then I had the additional veterinary costs,” John said.

Despite the initial cost, the efficacy of the vaccine now means that John only has to vaccinate ewe lambs he’s retaining for breeding prior to ram turnout. When selling ewe lambs from his own flock to others for breeding, he advises the purchasers to vaccinate for both enzo and toxo

Providing some take-home messages to the farmers in attendance, John said: “I learnt from my mistakes and it was a valuable and expensive lesson to learn.

“When you are trying to build numbers, it is inevitable that you have to go out and buy sheep, but the most important thing is to know where you are buying them from and their history because if you end up like me, it is a very costly lesson and a tough pill to swallow.”

For more from the Teagasc National Sheep Conference, click here.

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