Postmortem Examinations

Published on: Jun 15, 2022

In the last year across the practice, we have submitted 87 carcasses for a postmortem examination (PME). All the data from these submissions has been collated and reviewed at a practice level to see if there were any interesting trends.

Of the submissions, 60% were carried out ‘on farm’ by Shepton Vets and the rest were carried out by external postmortem providers: Bristol University Langford or at APHA Starcross. Of the ‘on farm’ postmortem examinations carried out by Shepton vets I have performed the vast majority, drawing on my experience from working as a VIO at the postmortem centre.

Approximately half of all the submissions were from dairy farms. One third of these were from sheep farms. This was interesting given that sheep flock health accounts for a smaller proportion our day to-day work. The main presenting sign in sheep submissions was sudden death. From a flock perspective, it is very important to understand why an animal dies as this is often the first sign of a problem. Most sheep diseases are preventable so without this knowledge we cannot safeguard against further losses.

Of all the dairy submissions we received, youngstock (<12 m/o) accounted for three quarters of these with half being pre-weaned animals. As you would expect, the main presenting signs from submissions from this group were respiratory disease, scour or sudden death.

The common diagnosis’s associated with the presenting sign of scour were Rotavirus/ Coronavirus and Cryptosporidium. Some calves had mixed viral and protozoal infections.

There were also a few diagnosis of Salmonellosis, both type D (Dublin) and type B (Typhimurium) were isolated in both pre and post weaned calves. It is clear that achieving a diagnosis is vitally important to determine the correct treatment and control measures required. This is why as part of the Gold Package on our relaunched calf health scheme spear headed by Emily we offer discounted postmortem examinations.

Of the 27 sheep submissions, 21 of these were lambs. Pasteurellosis pneumonia/septicaemia dominated the diagnoses as well as worms (PGE), all of which are preventable. Some lambs had trace element deficiencies; low selenium and cobalt impacting on lamb growth and immunity. These findings are mirror the sheep submissions in the South West England region 2021-2022.

If you have an unexpected death, and want to explore why please get in touch, and we can help to decide what would be the best course of action. Deaths on farm are disappointing, but can provide us with a valuable opportunity to get something useful from a loss.