Farmers urged to report cattle abortions and stillbirths
Investigating cattle abortions and stillbirths can improve herd planning and disease control.
Ruminant Health & Welfare (RH&W) has called for livestock farmers to report all abortions and stillbirths this block calving season.
The group says that accurate reporting and investigation is vital to help veterinary teams understand disease status and identify how to protect herds in future.
To support the thorough investigation of all abortions and stillbirths, farmers are being asked to send abortion tissues and blood samples for testing. This will assist both farmers and veterinary teams with herd planning, as well as identifying what was causing abortions.
This health planning includes assessing the status of infectious diseases and identifying the risk of zoonotic disease on the farm.
The current strain of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3), as well as Schmallenberg, means that thorough investigation is particularly important. Both of these notifiable diseases can cause late term abortion, stillbirth or deformities in calves.
Investigating the causes of abortions will also enable the effective monitoring of prevalent zoonotic diseases, such as Q fever and Salmonella Dublin. Through regular testing, scientists will be able to assess whether they are active on-farm or passive on-farm.
Submitting abortion cases will also uncover the status of brucellosis, increasing confidence that the UK is free of brucella.
To reduce the barriers for farmers submitting abortion and stillbirth cases, RH&W has produced a flyer and an online hub. The resources have been created in consultation with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and Animal Health NI.
The flyer should be printed off and fixed onto farm notice boards and saved on the phones of members of the farming team.
RH&W is encouraging workers, farmers and veterinary teams to stay informed of disease risks on farms in order to better manage the risk of people coming into contact with diseased herds.
Colin Mason, a veterinary investigation officer and centre manager at SRUC’s disease surveillance centre, said: “Ultimately, the more you can find out about your animals by investigating these unexplained abortion losses, the better for your farm, your animals and the industry.”
Information about cattle abortions and stillbirths can be found here.
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Joanne Webster, a professor of parasitic diseases at the RVC, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
