ANTIBIOTIC use within farming continues to be a topic with a lot of public and industry interest.

This has mainly been focussed on the use of antibiotics that have been classed as critically important due to their vital role in human medicine.

Meaning these are the only remaining treatments for critical human problems like severe infections in children.

Their use should be therefore limited to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance developing to these antibiotics.

We have a rare and exciting opportunity for the right candidate to join our friendly team as a Farm Coordinator at our modern, well equipped practice in Crediton.

Devon County Show marks the start of the show season in the South West and St Boniface Veterinary Clinic are looking forward to being honorary vets for the 4th year.

Tony Kemmish BSc BVMS GPcert(DCP) MRCVS Practice Principal says: "We are proud to be continuing the Wolfgar tradition, by providing veterinary surgeons to treat the magnificent livestock"

EFFICIENT milk production is the economic driver in the dairy herd and the primary aim is to optimise milk production per cow per year.

Most dairy cows will drop in production by 0.3% per day after peak production. The birth of a calf is essential for the onset of lactation and evidence shows the better the calving interval is, the more milk the cow will produce.

There is a national commitment from the sheep industry to reduce the amount of lame sheep to 2% of the national flock.  As it was estimated that 10% of sheep were lame when this was announced  this seemed ambitious.  However, the flocks that have tackled lameness in the ways described have found the number of lame sheep in their flock reduced to 2% quite easily, compared to 95% of those treated with injectable antibiotics alone.

The first task is to identify the cause of lameness, both in individual sheep and to know what causes most of the lameness in your flock.

These are now regarded as different stages of the same disease, both caused by Dichelobacter nodosus.

It is the most common cause of lameness on a majority of farms.

Treatment

Do not trim - only 5-10% of trimmed feet cured, compared to 95% of those treated with injectable antibiotics (trimming as well as injection halved the number that recovered). Therefore, aim to catch and inspect all lame sheep within 3 days, treat Footrot/scald with injectable oxytetracycline and oxytetracycline spray.

Spirochaetes seem to be a necessary cause for CODD, like in digital dermatitis in cattle; but we also find the footrot bacteria  - dichelobacter nodosus and fusobacterium necrophorum in more than half of CODD lesions.  Studies suggest there is an important link between the two.

We don’t know if/how much disease passes between species but bought in sheep are the main risk for introducing it to a flock.