MSD have produced a complete flock assessment toolk which can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your sheep lameness control strategy.
The practical ‘Lameness Control Planner’ from MSD Animal Health gives you a simple, yet highly visual ‘where are you now’ method of identifying whether your lameness management protocol is unbalanced in any way.
The assessment tool allows you to score current farm practice within each of the five points that make up the Five-Point sheep lameness reduction plan: culling; treatment; quarantine; avoidance and vaccination (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Five-Point Plan Scoring Matrix
Higher scores (out of five) show you are doing well in those areas of the Five-Point plan. Lower scores highlight the weaknesses and the areas you should focus on in future.
In the example shown below (figure 2), two out of the five action points have been carried out well, but the lameness issue has not been reduced as much as was hoped, causing frustration. The outcome pentagon explains why, highlighting weaker implementation in terms of the culling and quarantine practices on the farm.
Figure 2: Example Farm
This shows that if you now focus on improving culling and quarantine practices, plus a little extra attention to the treatment protocol, then the lameness situation within the flock should improve significantly.
Keen to find out more? Contact your local branch and speak to a member of our sheep team who can help you work through the lameness control planner for your flock.
You can also visit the Sheep health section of the DNOMF website for more information and farmer case studies: https://www.msd-animal-health-hub.co.uk/DNOMF
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