In a previous blog post we discussed selecting breeding stock. Today we are going to discuss the next step. Quarantine. When you bring your new prize ram/ewes home, they should go straight into a quarantine pen far away from all your other animals.
It doesn’t matter how healthy you think the new animals are or how reputable the breeder. You should always quarantine new animals up on arrival. This is particularly true if you had him shipped and he was exposed to other animals on his journey. You should also quarantine anything that has gone off farm (like to a show or fair) and returned. Yes, quarantining a new animal takes extra effort, but it can potentially save you a lot of headache and expense in the long run.
Quarantining new animals goes hand in hand with farm bio-security.
Every farm, no matter how small, should have a bio-security plan in place. If you don’t have one, we would encourage you to spend some time doing research. Think about how to best protect your animals (and subsequently your profitability).
Of course, the best way to avoid introducing a disease into your flock is to keep a closed flock. A closed flock is a flock that has no external animals coming into it. Unfortunately for most farms, keeping a closed flock is not practical. New rams will need to be brought in occasionally to introduce new genetic material. However, doing your best to minimize the number of animals you bring in can help to protect your flock. You should also keep in mind that goats share many of the same diseases with sheep, and cows and other animals can sometimes also share diseases. They should also be quarantined accordingly.
It is never a good idea to purchase animals from a flock that shows any signs of disease whatsoever
Hopefully in the process of selecting new sheep, you took our previous advice. You did your research, made time for observation, and asked a lot of questions about flock health. Most of the time you can avoid bringing home most diseases by carefully inspecting the animals and farm they come from prior to purchase. Nonetheless, a seemingly healthy animal can sometimes be harboring a disease. Thus, it is important to treat every new animal as if it is contagious.
When you bring home new sheep, they should go in a quarantine pen where they have no contact with your flock. They should be housed as far away as possible. They shouldn’t share feeders, water troughs, or fence lines. You should feed them last so as not to expose your flock via your clothing or shoes. Additionally, the quarantine area should either be able to be sterilized or left empty for an extended time after use. This is just in case a contagious disease is brought in.
Sheep should be quarantined for a minimum of 2 weeks, but ideally for 30 days or even longer if practical. You need to give time for diseases to appear, and this also gives you time to do any desired testing/treatments. There is a laundry list of contagious diseases you could potentially be introducing onto your farm with new breeding stock. Some examples of these diseases include Campylobacter (vibrio), Chlamydia (EAE), ringworm, Foot rot, Johne’s Disease, liver flukes, OPP, Pink eye, Soremouth and dewormer resistant parasites. Some of these diseases are best found with blood testing rather than observation alone.
Foot rot might be one of the most commonly introduced contagious diseases.
Foot rot is extremely contagious, can sneak onto your farm particularly on young animals in dry conditions. Foot rot is a very serious animal welfare issue which can cause the performance of your flock to suffer. Plus, once established in your flock it can be very difficult, time consuming and expensive to eradicate. It is a disease where an ounce of prevention is indeed worth more than a pound of cure.
While in quarantine all the new sheep should have their feet trimmed and inspected for any signs of foot rot or abnormalities. It is also our preference to also expose the animals to wet muddy conditions if at all possible, prior to releasing them into our flock. This is because foot rot typically appears under wet conditions. Many farms choose to make the assumption that every new animal has foot rot and treats them accordingly.
Dewormer resistance is also something you’re more likely to encounter than not.
It is a good idea to triple deworm and do fecal egg count (FEC) tests on incoming sheep in an effort to avoid introducing any more dewormer resistant worms than absolutely necessary. The goal is to get your new sheep to have a FEC of 0 or as close to it as possible prior to letting them on your pastures. It can also be beneficial to discuss deworming practices and any known resistance existing on the farm you are purchasing lambs from.
In addition, something people sometimes don’t think about is the risk humans visiting from other farms bring to the flock. It is a good idea to ‘quarantine’ people coming onto your farm. Diseases can sometimes be transmitted on clothing, shoes and even car tires. It is a good idea to ask folks coming onto your farm to wear clean clothes, booties, or to walk through a foot bath prior to coming onto your farm. You should follow the same procedure yourself any time you have been to another farm or to a facility, like fair grounds, where sheep and goats are housed.
We hope this has prompted you to think about you handle incoming animals and people on your farm before you get into trouble. If you would like to read more articles about improving your flock and keeping your animals healthy, please sign up for our newsletter!
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