Animal Health News

After two recent outbreaks of avian influenza in England, the risk level for the disease entering Great Britain via wild birds has been raised from ‘medium’ to ‘high’.

Farmers are being urged to monitor for the early signs of scour in calves as part of a campaign to help save the industry £60 million a year.

Avian flu of the H5N8 strain has been confirmed at a farm near Frodsham in Cheshire, the Animal and Plant Health Agency has announced.

Avian influenza H5N2 has been confirmed at a small commercial premises near Deal in Kent today (2nd November), the Animal and Plant Agency has revealed.

Dairy farmers are being urged to pay attention to transition diets this autumn by including a live yeast supplement to maximise productivity, achieve calving success and increase the longevity of the cow within the herd.

A lack of social distancing between sheep is almost exclusively to blame for the spread of the virus that causes maedi-visna, according to new research.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has written to International Trade Secretary Liz Truss to raise serious concerns over the balance of expertise on the new Trade and Agriculture Commission, pointing to the fact that only one member of the 16-strong group is a veterinary surgeon.

The early life intranasal calf pneumonia vaccine from MSD Animal Health is now available in single dose vials, giving users greater practical flexibility in vaccinating individual animals as and when needed.

A new parasite tracker suggests there has been an increase in exposure to the gutworm Ostertagia ostertagi in cattle over the 2020 grazing season, across England, Wales, and Scotland.

Gavin Rodda of Rosemorran Farm says: “At first we used a contractor to chop our straw but this became a costly and time consuming process. So, we contacted Teagle; they recommended the New Tomahawk 8555 Dual Chop with a removable screen which we can use for both feeding and bedding.

Ammonia, odour and dust emissions are an unavoidable by-product of both poultry, egg and pig production. Exhaust air treatment systems assist with this problem by reducing emissions of odours, bioaerosols, dust and ammonia bonds by up to 90 per cent.

One farmer, with the help of his specialist pig vet, has saved up to £2/pig by introducing a new vaccine that has helped eradicate Porcine Ileitis, otherwise known as Proliferative Haemorrhagic Enteropathy (PHE) or Porcine Intestinal Adenomatosis (PIA), from his herd.