Melbourne scientists put deadly sheep disease under the microscope
Media Release, Monday 26 June 2006
University of Melbourne scientists are collecting milk samples from sheep to find the cause of a disease that kills hundreds of ewes and their lambs each year.
Dr Stuart Barber, from the University’s Faculty of Veterinary Science, is leading research into sheep mastitis, an inflammation of the mammary gland or udder, which kills up to five per cent of ewes in Poll Dorset, Suffolk and Texel flocks each year.
Dr Barber’s research, conducted at 23 properties with 6500 stud sheep in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales, will take the milk from sheep infected with mastitis and test it to determine which bacteria are causing the problem.
Dr Barber said the research would help determine which antibiotics would be most effective against sheep mastitis.
It would also investigate the effectiveness of dry sheep therapy, a practice similar to that used on cows where antibiotics are put in their udder when the off-spring are weaned.
Dr Barber said in the past individual farms had the milk of sheep with mastitis tested for bacteria, but as the tests were isolated and random no common link could be made.
It was hoped that by using a larger sample, common causes could be identified resulting in better treatment and possibly, with further research, the development of a vaccine.
Dr Barber said meat-breed sheep such as Poll Dorset, Suffolk and Texels were only a small proportion of Australia’s sheep but made a major contribution to Australia’s prime lamb industry.
“These breeds are highly sought after because of the changing market, which has seen demand for wool breeds decline and meat breeds increase,’’ he said.
“This has resulted in strong demand for meat breed rams, with current ram numbers able to produce up to 20 million lambs.’’
Dr Barber’s said his research would have both strong animal welfare and economic impacts.
“Sheep mastitis is incredibly fast moving and unless you can treat it as soon as it occurs, the ewe may die within 24 hours,’’ he said.
“Then there is the impact on the ewe’s lambs who die if they cannot be transferred to another ewe or be hand-fed.
“It can also be devastating financially - a farmer losing five to 10 per cent of their ewes can lose up to $40 000, and if a lamb destined to become a top-notch stud ram dies it can cost more than $10 000.’’
Dr Barber said the research would also look at the practices of different farms to see if these impacted on the incidence of sheep mastitis.
“We will try to determine if there are risk factors which contribute to the development of mastitis. There are big variations in how farmers manage their sheep and if we find this makes a difference this may lead to an avenue for more research.’’
Dr Barber’s research is supported by a Producer Initiated Research and Development grant from Meat and Livestock Australia.
Media inquiries:
Stuart Barber
03 8344 9897
srbarber@unimelb.edu.au
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