Camplobacter

[Cecil snear]

Had test results back for aborted ewe lamb which was camplobacter, had 3 ewe lambs aborted last week but none this week. Really gutted as have always run a closed ewe flock. Ewe lambs scanned at 155% for end March lambing has anyone had any experience of this can anything be done.

 

[Purli R]

No,basically your stuffed this year,was suggested to us when it went thru ours to move fields regulary to avoid build up of disease as it is spread by wildlife & feeding sheep in shitty fields & soil etc(not so bad this year) also was suggested about having clean water supply if it"s a natural supply. Also mix your hoggs & clean ewes with those that have aborted (not til they have lambed)to get exposed & then build resistance for next year,keep pregnant ewes away from aborted ones.sorry cant be more positive.

 

[johnflimston]

Had test results back for aborted ewe lamb which was camplobacter, had 3 ewe lambs aborted last week but none this week. Really gutted as have always run a closed ewe flock. Ewe lambs scanned at 155% for end March lambing has anyone had any experience of this can anything be done.

Had a couple abort with campylobacter a few years ago. Didn't do anything and haven't noticed any since.
I believe you can import vaccine from NZ through vets if you think it's necessary.

 

[neilo]

Had it on and off for nearly 30 years. It will rumble on at low levels with a storm every now and again, even in a closed flock like we run. 2010 we had 15% abort, which was stopped short by going through with an Oxytet jab (although there is increasing resistance to that drug apparently). Then a dose of ET recipients aborted with it a couple of years ago. Been vaccinating young sheep since, seemingly to good effect.

Vaccine is cheap as chips (c.30p/dose) in NZ but I have heard of someone being quoted £2/dose from their vets. My vet charged about a tenner for the licence, so it’s hardly a big job doing the paperwork.

 

[livestock 1]

We’ve had it four times now. One year it was particularly bad with significant losses also had a high number of lambs born early alive but needed to be nursed with many dying later on. Also had a high number of bad doers which was likely due to it. Vets advice was nothing could be done. Only positive action was to mix sheep up after lambing to get them to build their own immunity. Alamycin la doesn’t work. There is an antibiotic available to combat it but it needs to be administered every 3/5 days so it’s impractical for large flocks.
One year I had a few abort in a short time so sent aborted lambs to vi centre and in the waiting time used £2000 of alamycin la to find out after a couple of days it was campylobacter. It suppressed the problem for a few days then started again.
Our two different vetenary practices we had involved said no vaccine licenced for use here only NZ.
Good luck. It may not amount to too much hopefully. Try not to spread it between batches. Think a birds at feeding areas and feeding equipment. You might loose some ewes there is no saving some of them that are badly effected.
It likes four year cycles whatever that’s all about I don’t know.
Often if you’ve had high numbers of geld ewes at scanning or late lambert you’ve had it earlier on in pregnancy without knowing. Things will improve when you hit your due date

 

[cotswoldcs]

Oh my goodness this brings back memories. 2018 was a terrible year for us and a campylobacter abortion storm was the worst thing ever. Our losses were horrendous (over 15% of 900 ewe flock) and like others have said those that survived early on were weak and struggled all year. Nothing much you can do that hasn't been mentioned above. I feel for you and hope you don't loose too many. The good news is that ewes that abort are generally healthy and will probably lamb next year if you decide to keep them. Our barren rate was same as average despite so many ewes aborting last year.


How many ewe lambs and are they separate from the main ewes?

 

[Cecil snear]

Oh my goodness this brings back memories. 2018 was a terrible year for us and a campylobacter abortion storm was the worst thing ever. Our losses were horrendous (over 15% of 900 ewe flock) and like others have said those that survived early on were weak and struggled all year. Nothing much you can do that hasn't been mentioned above. I feel for you and hope you don't loose too many. The good news is that ewes that abort are generally healthy and will probably lamb next year if you decide to keep them. Our barren rate was same as average despite so many ewes aborting last year.


How many ewe lambs and are they separate from the main ewes?

 

[Cecil snear]

Thanks for replys, this all started last year in the ewe lambs think they picked it up from wildlife from neighbours flock who bought it in from ewes he purchased which l didn't know at the time last year when mine where aborting that he was having the same problem as me.12% of my ewe lambs aborted last year, pulled them out and mixed them with my January Lambers against vets advice as he thought it was enzo . Had 4% of my January Lambers aborted which nearly all were shearling so I think mixing them last year helped and because I was pulling them out soon as they aborted the ewe lambs that didn't abort last year we're not immune to it and picked it up this year. Did blood test last year and found nothing, sent dead lambs in from January Lambers still nothing, but have now found the problem. Reading this it seems to affect different farm's in different ways. Have been asking around locally and seems to be more prevalent in highlander flocks for some reason, was it brought in to the UK from nz?
I

 

[Boydvalley]

Yes had an outbreak 2016. Was in one group of 40 in an outdoor pen. Two in one day and tested and confirmed. Affected 10 to 15 of them if I remember.

Fortunately I was suspicious and went full on with hygiene, boot dips, clearing up cleansing, wash/ disenfect down after we when in the pen etc. Students were brilliant and took it on board and we kept in the one pen.

Biggest thing is to mix with the ewes post lambing to build immunity.

Downside we have to run all first lambers as a separate flock from a few weeks before tupping until they have lambed before mixing with rest of the flock so they don't pick it up whilst pregnant. So far that has worked.

However did have a ewe chuck her lambs and was very ill just before scanning so I have got everything crossed, three weeks to lambing.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Thanks for replys, this all started last year in the ewe lambs think they picked it up from wildlife from neighbours flock who bought it in from ewes he purchased which l didn't know at the time last year when mine where aborting that he was having the same problem as me.12% of my ewe lambs aborted last year, pulled them out and mixed them with my January Lambers against vets advice as he thought it was enzo . Had 4% of my January Lambers aborted which nearly all were shearling so I think mixing them last year helped and because I was pulling them out soon as they aborted the ewe lambs that didn't abort last year we're not immune to it and picked it up this year. Did blood test last year and found nothing, sent dead lambs in from January Lambers still nothing, but have now found the problem. Reading this it seems to affect different farm's in different ways. Have been asking around locally and seems to be more prevalent in highlander flocks for some reason, was it brought in to the UK from nz?
I

No,
Campylobacter bacteria are around in the environment, I guess its the concentration or rather multiplication of it .. and the stock picking it up..in certain situations.... and then obviously the abortions themselves will spread it .
See Purli r's , post above.
Poorly functioning sewer soakaways would be a source apparently

 

[neilo]

We’ve had it four times now. One year it was particularly bad with significant losses also had a high number of lambs born early alive but needed to be nursed with many dying later on. Also had a high number of bad doers which was likely due to it. Vets advice was nothing could be done. Only positive action was to mix sheep up after lambing to get them to build their own immunity. Alamycin la doesn’t work. There is an antibiotic available to combat it but it needs to be administered every 3/5 days so it’s impractical for large flocks.
One year I had a few abort in a short time so sent aborted lambs to vi centre and in the waiting time used £2000 of alamycin la to find out after a couple of days it was campylobacter. It suppressed the problem for a few days then started again.
Our two different vetenary practices we had involved said no vaccine licenced for use here only NZ.
Good luck. It may not amount to too much hopefully. Try not to spread it between batches. Think a birds at feeding areas and feeding equipment. You might loose some ewes there is no saving some of them that are badly effected.
It likes four year cycles whatever that’s all about I don’t know.
Often if you’ve had high numbers of geld ewes at scanning or late lambert you’ve had it earlier on in pregnancy without knowing. Things will improve when you hit your due date

As posted above, there is apparently a fair bit of resistance about to Oxytet. My vet’s advice was to try it as there was little else that might have any effect. Thankfully one jab of Alamycin LA stopped it almost overnight for us.

The vaccine (Campyvax) is in general use in NZ I believe. It’s not licenced for the UK but can be imported under license. What the importers choose to charge for that seems to be a measure of how high they think they can lift your leg. Costs about 30p/dose down there (2 doses needed, then an annual booster pre-tupping).

 

[neilo]

No,
Campylobacter bacteria are around in the environment, I guess its the concentration or rather multiplication of it .. and the stock picking it up..in certain situations.... and then obviously the abortions themselves will spread it .
See Purli r's , post above.
Poorly functioning sewer soakaways would be a source apparently

^This. Campylobacter is everywhere, all the time.

We were told it can come from introduced sheep, from a contaminated water source, from a contaminated silage feeding area and from dirty troughs used for feeding. Our last big outbreak, in 2010, was in a flock of ewes strip grazing stubble turnips. They had no bale feeders, water troughs or concentrates being fed and were in a closed flock well away from any other sheep. It would have been nice to have something to blame, but I can’t see how it could have been avoided (prior to vaccination).

 

[livestock 1]

As posted above, there is apparently a fair bit of resistance about to Oxytet. My vet’s advice was to try it as there was little else that might have any effect. Thankfully one jab of Alamycin LA stopped it almost overnight for us.

The vaccine (Campyvax) is in general use in NZ I believe. It’s not licenced for the UK but can be imported under license. What the importers choose to charge for that seems to be a measure of how high they think they can lift your leg. Costs about 30p/dose down there (2 doses needed, then an annual booster pre-tupping).

Oxytetracyclene is not effective against campylobacter as it’s not sensitive to oxy. I’ve tried a few times but only slowed it or stopped it for a while. Are you sure you didn’t have enzotic? It does work against that

 

[neilo]

Oxytetracyclene is not effective against campylobacter as it’s not sensitive to oxy. I’ve tried a few times but only slowed it or stopped it for a while. Are you sure you didn’t have enzotic? It does work against that

No, definitely Campy, and confirmed by PM. Been vaccinated against EAE for about 25 years by that point.
Oxytet works against Campy, unless you have resistant Campy, which is becoming more widespread apparently. It certainly worked for us back then, but may not again of course.

 

[livestock 1]

I fear abortion at this time of year

 

[JD-Kid]

big thing is. with most vax programs. it can be cheep insurance
not many people. would not say oh I will not insure the house cos. only have a fire once in 40 years and then it. still only. 5 % of it
the losses maybe there all the time it's just when. there is a storm that realy show up the numbers

 

[livestock 1]

big thing is. with most vax programs. it can be cheep insurance
not many people. would not say oh I will not insure the house cos. only have a fire once in 40 years and then it. still only. 5 % of it
the losses maybe there all the time it's just when. there is a storm that realy show up the numbers

I have 2 vet practices here who told me I can’t get it ??

 

[neilo]

I have 2 vet practices here who told me I can’t get it ??

The import licence is an online application. The practice manager at out vets’ did it in about 10 minutes, despite never having seen it before. Then it’s just a case of importing it, or finding someone else who is in order to share the costs.
As posted above, someone local was quoted £2/dose by their vet, which is the sort of markup that would make me conside

 

[Netherfield]

I once had a dog with it, the vet knew all about the problem, his wife who is a nurse had suffered with it recently.

 

[Macsky]

I had campylobacter food poisoning a couple of lambings ago, fortunately the last weekend of it, but the week after was horrendous and was left with IBS like symptoms that lasted for a year after, probably still not 100%, wonder if I picked it up from the ewes?