CLA in sheep

[Devil's advocate]

Sorry to repeat myself to those who followed the lungworm in sheep thread.

I appear to have CLA in a flock which has been closed bar for the purchase of 4 tups over the last 10 years. Due to having a very time consuming & unpreditable vegetable business which is very busy at this time of the year, it is arkard to get the vet in but will try ASAP. I have two ewes with abcess's on their necks & a couple of ewes with a really nasty cough. As soon as I can organise it,I want to blood test the coughing ewes & also do an FEC test to rule out lungworm. Also test the pus in the two ewes with swelling, although they do not appear to be right on the lymth node one is under the jaw the other a little further back than the lymth node, but coupled with mastitis which my flock suffered in the spring but only in 4 & 5 crop ewes I'm conviced it is CLA. A shearing injury or very slow development in one of my foundation ewes is the likely source.

For someone like myself with a small hobby flock (80 ewes) who is bio security obssesed to catch it. The disease must be quite wide spread, from what I've read it is a disease related to TB & can cause some symtoms in humans were someone to squeeze the pus out of a swelling or lick the head of a coughing sheep.

It would appear a vaccine can be imported if a vet requests it but likely to be expensive, I shall go down that route if the vet supports me. But I think reseeding the arable fields & ploughing out the grass fields, reintroducing cattle & keep a very young self replacing flock is the way to go. Doing my own shearing would be an advantage, but sadly don't know how & at 48 perhaps to old to learn. Something else I will tighten up on is hygine of needles, sterilled one for each injection. Culling all the ewes & replacing them in a year is an option but not one I really want to take & could result in introducing another disease. Can tups transmit CLA via their semen?

I've read on Google that 20% of flocks are estimated to have at least one sheep with CLA, with the amount of trade in sheep, CLA would appear to be a real ticking time bomb until a cheap effective vacinne becomes available perhaps longterm a more serious problem than SBV.

Would be very interested in experiences of others whose flocks suffer from CLA. pm if you prefer.

 

[neilo]

You could disinfect shearing equipment onto the farm, if your contractor lets you. Got to be better than doing it yourself.

Never heard of any link through semen, and I think there has only been one case recorded in humans, so I shouldn't be unduly worried on that score.

 

[Downton_shep]

I wouldn't worry yourself to much till it's confirmed as it's not on the lymth node and you pretty much have a closed flock. Could just be from dog bite or thorns.

 

[Big Al]

Wasn't it you who thought you had MV in your flock a while back? If it was did you have the vet out then taking blood tests, wouldn't they have found some cases of CLA then?

 

[neilo]

I wouldn't worry yourself to much till it's confirmed as it's not on the lymth node and you pretty much have a closed flock. Could just be from dog bite or thorns.

Agreed. Lots of things make for lumps on sheep. Blood test is neither here nor there either, throwing lots of false negatives & false positives.

 

[Sandpit Farm]

We have a lamb with a soft swelling all under the throat, could this be CLA?? It is unaffected in its growth or behaviour. We thought it could be deficient in iodine etc so ensured it had a suitable lick. Will see if I can get a photo...

 

[itsintheblood]

We have a lamb with a soft swelling all under the throat, could this be CLA?? It is unaffected in its growth or behaviour. We thought it could be deficient in iodine etc so ensured it had a suitable lick. Will see if I can get a photo...

sounds like fluke to me??

 

[llamedos]

I think a lot of abscesses at this time of year are thorn wounds gone bad.

 

[Big Al]

Earlier in the year I had a ewe that always had its head in the creep feeder every time it was being refilled. Shortly afterwards it had a great big swelling under its jaw that I put down to a nick from the cut edge of the tin on the hopper. 3Ml of pen strep and it was gone in 4 days.

 

[llamedos]

I had a good lonk ewe who developed a severe swelling on the side of her jaw, just under the jaw line, it abcessed and was drained, it was not a runny abscess it was the thick heavy cream cheese almost corky muck that came out, she started to gain weight and then it did the same again, within about 24 hrs she started breathing badly, so I got vet out, he thought CLA, I wasn't convinced, so he suggested culture of the muck and bloods.
As I held her head up for him to access Jugular, she died. She was a repeated stray from a neighbour, who finally said keep her, she never left my quarantine pens. Due to the swellings. So we pm'd her straight away.


The abscess was that large inside it was pressing on her wind pipe and just the sideways movement of her head had suffocated her, the abscess stemmed from an obvious drenching injury at the back of her mouth. From the outside it was about lemon sized, inside it was almost as big again.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Wasn't it you who thought you had MV in your flock a while back? If it was did you have the vet out then taking blood tests, wouldn't they have found some cases of CLA then?

Yes we did the blood tests for MV & negative, but not tested for CLA. Did test a lump at shearing for CLA well the thick white pus, but still waiting for results. Have a ewe coughing so when there is a break in the work load getting her FEC tested & blood tested for CLA & a ewe to take to the vets with a lump to be examined.

But I've had a flock of sheep for 30 years & in the last two years things so many problems. Mastitis in a 1/3 of the 4 & 5 crop ewes none in the ewe lambs, two shears & the 6 & 7 crop ewes, Lumps on three sheeps necks (ewes that lose condition fast) & Severe coughing in a small number of ewes. The bulk of the ewes fine & lambs selling really well at market but something is really hammering the odd ewe & it did not happen in the past problems like these.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I think a lot of abscesses at this time of year are thorn wounds gone bad.

I hope you are right but no abscesses in the last 30 years & then three all together, mastitis & pnemonia.

 

[llamedos]

I hope you are right but no abscesses in the last 30 years & then three all together, mastitis & pnemonia.

Flies have played a big part this season, are sites of abscess where injections have been ? or rubbing due to headfly worry, and self inflicted injury becoming infected.
Also just noticing bot eggs on ponies legs, not seen the flock presenting the classic head down stance yet though, this seems to bother my ronnies more than the others and are usually good indicators for the rest, these are a bit early this year too.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Flies have played a big part this season, are sites of abscess where injections have been ? or rubbing due to headfly worry, and self inflicted injury becoming infected.
Also just noticing bot eggs on ponies legs, not seen the flock presenting the classic head down stance yet though, this seems to bother my ronnies more than the others and are usually good indicators for the rest, these are a bit early this year too.

No

Any theories as to the Mastitis & coughing all new not seen in this pattern in 30 years of shepherding. A flock of near perfect ewes then at 4 crop stage odd ewes suddenly going ill & either developing abcesses, pnemonia or Mastitis. Entire flock homebred all cared for in the same way, just 4 & 5 crop affected younger & older fine.

 

[llamedos]

Will be interesting to see how you get on, keep us up to date. Hope it isn't CLA, best of luck.

 

[llamedos]

PS picture of abscess site would be good

 

[Jackson4]

I am the same as you... had a lamb in the summer which had abcesses behind its jaw which wouldn't respond to treatment (deeply infected) gone through some tail enders today and 5 more have abcesses under there chin, behind there jaw etc?? They are poor doers. Probably best to get some puss drawn and taken to the vets.
Not good if it is CLA and can affect humans as you obviously are holding the lambs by the chin.
I did find about 4 or 5 ewes (out of 500) with lumps behind the jaw when i sheared them.

 

[Downton_shep]

I am the same as you... had a lamb in the summer which had abcesses behind its jaw which wouldn't respond to treatment (deeply infected) gone through some tail enders today and 5 more have abcesses under there chin, behind there jaw etc?? They are poor doers. Probably best to get some puss drawn and taken to the vets.
Not good if it is CLA and can affect humans as you obviously are holding the lambs by the chin.
I did find about 4 or 5 ewes (out of 500) with lumps behind the jaw when i sheared them.

Could these be caused by a drench gun?

 

[Devil's advocate]

I am the same as you... had a lamb in the summer which had abcesses behind its jaw which wouldn't respond to treatment (deeply infected) gone through some tail enders today and 5 more have abcesses under there chin, behind there jaw etc?? They are poor doers. Probably best to get some puss drawn and taken to the vets.
Not good if it is CLA and can affect humans as you obviously are holding the lambs by the chin.
I did find about 4 or 5 ewes (out of 500) with lumps behind the jaw when i sheared them.

Sorry to read that, but thanks for adding to the debate.

Have you any other problems? such as when you move the flock there are coughing ewes & did you have more mastitis than usual in the spring?

Just reading google 18% of flocks have at least one sheep with CLA, A burst abscess sheds millions of bacteria a day, one of the CLA bacteria eaten by a sheep will cause the disease to develop in that sheep within 2 to 5 years. Standard sheep systems involve large movement of animals & shearers travelling from farm to farm. Scary stuff until we get a vaccine.

Hope of course both you & I have something different to CLA.

 

[Yale]

Had one or two with abcesses on the neck.

TBH,its only a sheep and if infection is inevitable then sending a cull or two more is hardly going to break the bank.

There's a lot worse things in life.On my priority list this one doesn't even score.