Schmallenberg virus, vaccinate or not

rancher

It's expected now that the virus is going to cross the country this year, are you going to vaccinate,
I will be vaccinating and here's my reasoning.
Cost of vaccinating =€ 1700.....800 lambs at risk,
If the virus doesn't hit it will be €1700 wasted,
But if it saves even the minimum loss that was reported in the outbreaks of 3% in the south east last year, it would be 24 lambs.
However some flocks went up to 40% losses.....300 lambs

paddysdream

Was at a talk recently by a vet from the company selling the vaccine and to tell the truth I came away very unsure and prob. will not vaccinate.

Reasons are that any and all questions asked ;eg

will we have to vacccinate every year? possible;dont know yet
does it cover all versions of the disease?unsure
are sheep exposed this year immune?unsure ;maybe
if an adjoining flock has it are you certain to get it?not in all cases it seems
does it affect all sheep?no
will it always cause lamb losses?unsure

Basically the message I took from it was that this looks like a rush job to cover the cost of producing a vaccine that may or may not be needed in the future.
Coming from the south east which supposedly had the the worst of it last year have met very few people who got the blizzard talked about in the media.
Here had 2 lambs March born with no lower jaw(one of the indicators) but both were twins and the other was perfect.Also had a couple with twisted front legs.Either I got a bit of it or these were just some of the normal things you see with a crop of lambs each and every year.
As regards barren ewes ;possibly had my best ever year re. ewes not in lamb at scanning and nothing lost between then and lambing ie all lambs scanned were there at birth if mammy survived that long!
From talking to farmers around here it seems that very few will consider doing it this year ,instead going to wait and see if it is going to be a problem going forward.
Some see it as just another exercise to market more product to a low margin industry.

rancher

paddysdream wrote: »

Was at a talk recently by a vet from the company selling the vaccine and to tell the truth I came away very unsure and prob. will not vaccinate.

Reasons are that any and all questions asked ;eg

will we have to vacccinate every year? possible;dont know yet
does it cover all versions of the disease?unsure
are sheep exposed this year immune?unsure ;maybe
if an adjoining flock has it are you certain to get it?not in all cases it seems
does it affect all sheep?no
will it always cause lamb losses?unsure

Basically the message I took from it was that this looks like a rush job to cover the cost of producing a vaccine that may or may not be needed in the future.
Coming from the south east which supposedly had the the worst of it last year have met very few people who got the blizzard talked about in the media.
Here had 2 lambs March born with no lower jaw(one of the indicators) but both were twins and the other was perfect.Also had a couple with twisted front legs.Either I got a bit of it or these were just some of the normal things you see with a crop of lambs each and every year.
As regards barren ewes ;possibly had my best ever year re. ewes not in lamb at scanning and nothing lost between then and lambing ie all lambs scanned were there at birth if mammy survived that long!
From talking to farmers around here it seems that very few will consider doing it this year ,instead going to wait and see if it is going to be a problem going forward.
Some see it as just another exercise to market more product to a low margin industry.

Think most farmers are thinking the same as you,
I'm going on my vets advice as well, I probably don't want to listen to ''I told you'' in the spring

paddysdream

My vet is advising that ,at the price and with all the doubts etc,that its questionable as to vaccinate or not.

iverjohnston

Neighbour vaccinated 60 ewes on Wednesday, which he will have lambing in January. cost €3.20 per ewe. He was advised that they only need one vaccination in their lifetime. I have not heard of any case of the virus up here in Cavan, but we expect it will reach us by spring, if the midges are not already here. The annual migration of ewes up from Wicklow sales may be a mixed blessing this year..................

paddysdream

iverjohnston wrote: »

Neighbour vaccinated 60 ewes on Wednesday, which he will have lambing in January. cost €3.20 per ewe. He was advised that they only need one vaccination in their lifetime. I have not heard of any case of the virus up here in Cavan, but we expect it will reach us by spring, if the midges are not already here. The annual migration of ewes up from Wicklow sales may be a mixed blessing this year..................

As regards vaccinating every year ,meant that you may have to vaccinate the sheep you bring into the breeding flock every year ie continue to do ewe lambs ,hoggets etc .

It seems to affect sheep in I think the second and third month in lamb ie for a March lambing flock starting 01 03 2014 the danger months would be November and December.

Also dont think it can spread from sheep to sheep without the midge.

rancher

paddysdream wrote: »

As regards vaccinating every year ,meant that you may have to vaccinate the sheep you bring into the breeding flock every year ie continue to do ewe lambs ,hoggets etc .

It seems to affect sheep in I think the second and third month in lamb ie for a March lambing flock starting 01 03 2014 the danger months would be November and December.

Also dont think it can spread from sheep to sheep without the midge.

I think the infected sheep can come to a clean area and infect the local midges and then they infect the local sheep

tabby aspreme

A lad selling hoggets in Tullow last Wednesday had a sign over his pens saying they were vaccinated against smallenburg, can midges pick up the disease from vaccinated ewes or is it only from ewes actively infected

rancher

tabby aspreme wrote: »

A lad selling hoggets in Tullow last Wednesday had a sign over his pens saying they were vaccinated against smallenburg, can midges pick up the disease from vaccinated ewes or is it only from ewes actively infected

The vaccine company claim that vaccinated ewes are not infectious

Poor Farmer in the hills

Not going to vaccinate because ram out 20 October so critical period of pregnancy in winter so no midges around to infect them. If i was putting ram out earlier i would consider it

razor8

would one the of pour on's be any good to use in the 2nd or 3rd month or pregnancy. they should keep midges away, might be better than nothing

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

would one the of pour on's be any good to use in the 2nd or 3rd month or pregnancy. they should keep midges away, might be better than nothing

Had a farmer in the yard with dung samples who claimed it was a ''no brainer'' not to vaccinate. he has 600 sheep and I met another farmer at the show that was just after picking up 350 doses from one of the stands.......kinda reassured now that I'm doing right by vaccinating.

On the pour ons, you'd imagine they would help.......but I'm sure if they worked, we'd hear more about it.....even from the manufacturers themselve

yessam

Anyone hear of Smallenburg being around yet this year.

paddysdream

yessam wrote: »

Anyone hear of Smallenburg being around yet this year.

Heard nothing about it this year.I am in the south east and have the few early ones finished and about 90 or so of the main crop lambed.
No signs of it,no deformed twisted lambs or unexplained losses.

To tell the truth(touch wood!!!!!) so far ,from the main crop,have lost no lamb apart from one who slipped lamb about a week early.

Looking at the diary in the jeep its 93 lambed(going kinda slow )and every lamb that was scanned is alive and well with all bar 20 or so out in the field.

Never had as little hassle with ewes lambing in a good few years.Just one case of mismothering(well a case of not taking to one of her own lambs) plus one 3 year old ewe lambed down with no milk.

All that said ,everything will prob. go ti*s up tonight or tomorrow!

yessam

paddysdream wrote: »

Heard nothing about it this year.I am in the south east and have the few early ones finished and about 90 or so of the main crop lambed.
No signs of it,no deformed twisted lambs or unexplained losses.

To tell the truth(touch wood!!!!!) so far ,from the main crop,have lost no lamb apart from one who slipped lamb about a week early.

Looking at the diary in the jeep its 93 lambed(going kinda slow )and every lamb that was scanned is alive and well with all bar 20 or so out in the field.

Never had as little hassle with ewes lambing in a good few years.Just one case of mismothering(well a case of not taking to one of her own lambs) plus one 3 year old ewe lambed down with no milk.

All that said ,everything will prob. go ti*s up tonight or tomorrow!

Nice to get a good start. Hopefully it will continue.
Still no talk of Smallenburg yet this year.

AnFeirmeoir

Ifj said there's little or no sign of it this year .
They're putting it down to the bad spring and good summer! It's obvious no one understands this virus