Author: Kate Hayes

Case Study: Johne’s Disease

We have recently been working hard to get all the 2019 Johne’s declarations done in time for the October 31st deadline.
There are 7 of us in the practice accredited as NJMP (National Johne’s Management Plan) advisors having undergone additional annual training with the most up-to-date advice on Johne’s and how best to tailor management practices to your farm.
We completed 113 dairy plans last year, the vast majority of dairy farms have to complete one for milk buyers. This year that has extended to include all Red Tractor Dairy Farms also.
I have found that as we revisit this in a thorough on farm review it is really important to remember how we break the cycle of reinfection on farm.
Frustratingly, prior to implementation of NJMP several of our farms had tested (costing money!) for years and relied up on culling infected or high risk cows. Sadly a lot of these farms see no overall reduction in numbers of high risk cows as they replace with new infections and in some cases we saw Johne’s cases/ test positive cases actually increase; as day to day farm practices are overlooked.
These are my top focus areas for identifying possible reinfection hot spots on farm.
Calving Area. Remember the aim is to protect or ‘ringfence’ your replacement heifer calves for the future. So any low risk cow should be able to calve down in an area that has not been contaminated with faeces from high risk cows. Either in separate communal facilities which are cleaned regularly (days/weeks not months!) or individual calving boxes cleaning out in between calvings.
Colostrum and milk feeding practices. After calving area hygiene, the next most common area for reinfection is milk feeding. Ensure replacement heifers do not get colostrum or milk from Johne’s cows. Nor milk or colostrum contaminated with faecal splashes. Feeding pooled milk waste or from the main tank is a real hot spot for trouble as one cow may infect many calves.
If you don’t feed powdered milk, ENSURE high/medium/untested cows do NOT contribute to the pool of milk for calf feeding.
Identification. Once a cow is identified as high or medium risk, some sort of easy to identify on farm identification (ear tags, tail tape, leg strap, leg tape) is essential, so every one dealing with that cow can be trained to manage her as appropriate. In case of concurrent illness and culling decisions, breeding decisions, DON’T allow in communal calving area!
If you have not had your annual Johne’s review and declaration signed, please do contact the office and book up ASAP to make the national deadline at the end of October.
Alex Perkins

Farm Newsletter

October 2019 Edition

“

”

Directors Focus

It was great to see so many of you at the Dairy Show

Shepton Veterinary Group Ltd
Allyn Saxon Drive
Shepton Mallet
Somerset
BA4 5QH
Tel: 01749 341 761
Email: farm.animal@sheptonvets.com
www.sheptonvets.com
Office opening hours
Monday – Friday: 8am—5.30pm
Saturday: 8.30am—12pm
Emergency Service
We provide a 24 hour emergency service.
If you need assistance out of our normal working hours, please telephone
01749 341 761

If you would like to receive your farm account and this newsletter by email please advise the farm office.

It was great to see so many of you at this year’s South-West Dairy show at the Bath and West showground.
Taking time to catch up with you off of the farm is really enjoyable for us, and it seemed many of you enjoyed yourselves on the stand too.
That of course could have been down to the lovely pastries, ploughmans lunch or cake we offered, or even the Shepton Vets Farm logo’d vaccine bags many of you took away with you.
Either way it was a great day and we’re already making plans for next year.
Many of you have the cows in by night now, and some have them in altogether.
The change always seems to upset cows, and often represents a busy time for us dealing with sick animals.
Most vulnerable of all at this changeable time always seems to be the calves. Pneumonia season will soon be upon us, so careful planning to avoid this costly and depressing condition is worthwhile.
As the youngstock vet in the practice I’m always keen to help clients avoid this frustrating condition in their calves, plus our vet techs are on hand to administer vaccine into your calves at no additional cost.
Contact the practice if you want help to avoid pneumonia issues this season
Oliver Tilling

Other news

Dairy Show
Each year we sponsor the Dairy Future Showmanship and Calf classes at The Dairy Show, as part of our commitment to encouraging the next generation.
Anna & Spike enjoyed spending time with this year’s entrants and presenting the awards.
Health & Safety Event
Accidents on farm are on the increase, and with this in mind we are currently planning a Health & Safety event with Cornish Mutual for January 2020. The day will include practical sessions on: First aid, quad bikes, animal handling and safe handling of chemicals. Full details will be released shortly, but we do hope you will be able to join us.
Wells Practice Celebrates
1st Birthday
Our small animal branch, Wells Vets celebrates their first birthday this month with a dog show and open day on Saturday 19th October 12 –3pm.

TB or not TB

Most farmers will have heard of the TB blood or the gamma interferon test - usually and unfortunately associated with a tale of woe! The advantage of the blood test is that it identifies more TB infected animals than the skin test but the disadvantage is that it produces more false positive results (reactors). APHA will use the blood test in 3 circumstances:
In a persistent breakdown (lasting more than 18 months) where the skin test is thought not to have identified all the infected animals.
In an explosive breakdown (when a large number of reactors have been disclosed at a single test – APHA uses its discretion to determine this figure)
A new breakdown following the end of the second cull season.
We are able to offer a free telephone advice and/or visit on behalf of the TB Advisory Service (TBAS). The aim of TBAS is to help farmers reduce and ideally prevent TB problems in their herds and to answer questions for which you might otherwise need to contact APHA. If you would like some free advice about TB or a visit, please contact the practice. In order to provide this service, we will need your SBI No.
Ralph Drouin BVetMED MRCVS

Events & Training Courses

Medicine Delivery Service

Smallholder Meeting Poultry Husbandry
20th November
MilkSure
11th December
Farm Health & Safety Event
17th January
Mastering Medicines
20th January 2020
5th February
Foot Trimming
17th February
DIY AI Course
2nd –5th March
Email: training@sheptonvets.com for more information or to book a space.

Do you find collecting medicines a drain on your precious time and resources? Why not free up your time and let us deliver them direct to your door?
Our Medicine Delivery Service offers you the convenience of medicines delivered direct to your medicine store, helping you with availability and stock control.
We deliver to our clients all over Somerset and beyond, Tuesday to Friday's every week.
Our Medicine Delivery Service is by subscription, costing only £7.50 + vat per month. One off deliveries are available at a cost of £5 + vat, per delivery - these can only be delivered on the set day for your region
For more information or if you would like to subscribe to our Medicine Delivery Service, please contact Jo in the Pharmacy.

BVD Stamp It Out

We have 77 farms enrolled now on the APHA funded scheme ‘BVD Stamp It Out’. The scheme has been really successful at fully defining herd status, with funded check testing to assess farms exposure to virus, and assess risks and biosecurity on farm. The scheme gives you the option to enrol on BVD Free England, the scheme built around a national database, searchable for the BVD status of individual animals and herds tested under the scheme.
Stamp It Out also funds two vet visits on farm where we have used the time to go through BVD risks unique to your farm, and relevant action plans to prevent BVD coming in and causing a problem. The time can be used for blood testing for your screening test or discussing how vaccination may help manage biosecurity risks for you.
We have found a number of farms not currently implementing their vaccine strategy as recommended on the data sheet. There are two vaccines available on the market, and data sheets recommendations do vary. We would always advise you to check the package insert when opening a new bottle, batch or product.
We have had a third of these farms throw up enough antibody exposure on initial test to warrant a PI (Persistently Injected Animals) hunt. Where this is warranted the scheme provides a generous contribution towards further testing to identify PI animals within the herd. In the majority of our herds this funding covers total costs.
For these PI hunts some have identified PI animals still on farm, these persistently infected animals constantly hooch out BVD virus causing immune suppression, loss of production, decreased growth rate, abortion and repeat breeders to name a few. Equally some PI hunts have not identified a PI on farm currently but they have ruled out every animal on farm giving a clean slate to move forward. The old image of a stunted PI animal with a snotty nose and a stary coat continues to be outdated as many of our breakdowns have identified a mature bought in animal, often in calf or recently calved as the culprit for bringing in BVD to farm.
We have run 9 initial cluster meetings so far, however a few people were unable to attend, and a few have cottoned on to the generous funding and time available, and we have a growing list of interest.
If you would like to attend our last cluster meeting in late autumn please contact Roxy in the office ASAP, this is open to beef and dairy herds.
Alex Perkins

Team Shepton: Nicole Baldry

So as my first staff focus I thought I would give you a brief overview of what I get up to outside of work.
As I am often accompanied by my springer spaniel side kick Cedric, a lot of our time is spent hiking to try to find the best views and the best pubs to eat in.
As a massive foodie I am always open to pub recommendations and good recipe suggestions. I am also an avid traveller, currently planning holidays for next year to Beirut, Ibiza (for the big 3-0) and Turkey.
I love exploring new places, foods and cultures. I also enjoy a well made espresso martini when not on call!

Order yur herd

Community
Focus

“

TBAS
TB Advisory Service

Team Shepton: Bibby Thomas

Up-to-date Herd or an imminent inspection!

Herd Health / Flock Plans