Animal Health News

From March 2022, Dr Richard Irvine will join the Welsh government as the new chief veterinary officer.

As weather patterns become increasingly extreme and unpredictable, input costs continue to rise, and farmers face ongoing pressure to reduce environmental impacts, approaches to managing parasites and disease will need to adapt. Livestock editor Sarah Kidby reports.

Lambs require adequate amounts of high quality colostrum for short and long-term health. Here’s how to supplement when quality and quantity fall short to keep lambs healthy.

Independent trial work by SAC has revealed a range of health and productivity benefits for flocks that were fed a combination feed and mineral bucket supplement in the final six weeks of pregnancy.

Coleg Sir Gar, in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College, has been awarded a project to work closely with the sheep sector to control and ultimately eradicate sheep scab.

Two leading livestock vets are urging farmers to vaccinate their livestock this winter for clostridial diseases as more animals are outwintered and vaccine boosters missed.

The Disease? Not On My Farm! initiative encourages farmers to take a preventative rather than reactive approach to animal health. During a recent roundtable, the campaign’s farm ambassadors considered the latest developments in the livestock sector and how industry recommendations are being implemented within their herds and flocks.

Efra Committee MPs have written to environment secretary Thérèse Coffey calling for ‘urgent action’ to address the immediate and longer term needs of the poultry sector.

The level of liver fluke is forecast to be relatively low for much of the UK, but the risk to grazing livestock on individual farms is becoming less predictable, say industry experts.

Feeding for optimum rumen function is a way farmers can help to maximise productivity from their herd and potentially improve sustainability, listeners on the latest Mole Valley Farmers’ Podcast heard. 

At transition the dairy cow is perhaps at her highest metabolic vulnerability – she is subject to demands which physiologically she often struggles to sustain. Energy and calcium are two prime examples. Post-calving the cow’s demands for both can suddenly increase by upwards of two-fold compared to what they previously were before calving.

For many years the National Sheep Association (NSA) has fought to increase awareness of the devastating issue of sheep worrying by dogs. So, as families prepare for the Christmas holidays, the association that represents UK sheep farmers is angered by a new festive family film inadvertently ignoring the seriousness of the issue.