This includes dead lambs, placenta, lambing gloves and straw or bedding.Īborted lambs and placenta can be used to take diagnostic swabs by your veterinary surgeon. Take care while handling aborted material and when returning back into the house.Īll aborted material should be removed quickly from lambing pens. This means they can affect humans, with pregnant women being at particular risk. We need to remember that these abortion agents are zoonotic agents. Following infection, sheep develop immunity which will protect them against the disease in subsequent pregnancies All feed stores should be secured and cats really shouldn’t be allowed in sheep sheds with pregnant ewes. With cats playing an important role in the potential spread of toxoplasmosis.Once a diagnosis is made, then long term control strategies like vaccination become very important. During a toxoplasma outbreak there is little point treating the flock.While enzootic abortion you can have some lambs born weak or alive, with toxoplasma more often than not you will have dead lambs (or mummified foetuses. ![]() Other ewes will carry close to full term aborting anywhere in the last 6 weeks before lambing. Some ewes will abort early and will scan empty. With toxoplasma you can get a number of presentations.They can spread toxoplasma oocysts in their faeces which can infect immunoniave sheep. The cat plays as important intermediate host in this cycle. Toxoplsmosis is an abortion agent caused by a protozoan oocyst.With increased concerns around AMR and antibiotic resistance we must be very careful about flock treatments without the correct diagnosis.Once this problem or chlamydia abortion has been diagnosed vets can recommend flock treatments with antibiotics. Where outbreaks occur all aborted sheep and aborted materials must be kept away from other sheep.This is why operating a closed flock pays or else buying stock from a farm of known disease status. This is one of the abortion agents we can bring into our flock with sheep carrying the bacteria.They will appear normal but can abort after 90 days of pregnancy. In simple terms exposed sheep may become infected.It will lie dormant in these sheep until they are 90 days pregnant greatly increasing the risk of abortion. ![]() Even young lambs or other infected sheep can pick up the infection from these materials. It can spread easily from the womb of infected sheep, aborted lambs or afterbirth.
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