Tackle ‘syndromes’ instead of individual disease

Grouping conditions or diseases together which occur at different points in the production cycle made it possible to put in place a package of measures which could have a greater payback than tackling individual disease alone said Nigel Miller, chair of the new Ruminant Health and Welfare group (RHWG).

Mr Miller defined these as ‘syndromes’ or stressors at different times of the year.

In a poll carried out by the online conference audience, reproductive failure and neonatal lamb disease or mortality were identified as the ‘syndromes’ having the biggest impact on sheep farmers’ productivity.

Mr Miller said: “What happens one year will not necessarily happen the next, environmental, nutritional or disease factors will impact.

“Therefore, using national flock benchmarking alongside farm individual benchmarking makes sense.

“It gives you the opportunity to work with a vet or advisor to focus on the things that matter most to your flock.

“Change in one area is very possible and can happen quite quickly, but trying to target two or three at the same time can become difficult to manage.”

A subsequent poll went on to reveal that delegates ranked thin ewe syndrome and conditions in late pregnancy as having the greatest impact on animal welfare.

Measuring the impact of welfare however is more difficult, Mr Miller said, adding that it would be good to develop common indicators to score flocks across the country.

He said: “To make progress and focus management efforts, it would be helpful to have a consensus across the industry on what the welfare strengths and challenges in our sectors are to be able to focus efforts where it is thought improvements can be made.”