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Has anyone else experienced this, we have recently lost 3 ram lambs, all at around 4 weeks of age to listeria meningitis, It is horrible.... within 3 hours of becoming ill they loose their sight, get a paralysed tongue & die.
All were very strong, healthy and active before succumbing.
The vet said it was just in the ground but I am now really worried as have many more lambs.
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Listeria in lambs
Started By
Andrewaz
, 14 Mar 2012 11:09
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#2
Posted 14 March 2012 - 15:21
helend
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- Book Owners
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- 94 posts
Turkey
- LocationBrecon Beacons
Hi Andrewaz - I am so sorry to hear about your lambs, as if there wasn't enough to worry about this year.
I don't have any experience of this - to be fair I don't have much experience of anything at all as I only have 5 sheep and I've only had them for 9 months - but I do have a small library of books given to me by their previous owner, and I've had a quick look for what you've said; the books are quite old but hopefully the info is still applicable.
I can find meningitis in the section about lambs, and I can find Listeriosis - it's mentioned in sections about adult sheep but says it can affect lambs. I can't find 'listeria' but it's linked and a quick google search says the meningitis can be a manifestation of the listeriosis.
Meningitis is in the section about "lambs that are normal at birth" and there's not a lot of info - it says it's a bacterial infection that can affect lambs from a few days to a few weeks old, it originates from poor intake of colostrum and/or dirty conditions. It says the lambs would show signs of depression, blindness, yawning, and abnormal arching the head back over the neck. It says they become hypothermic because they stop feeding. The last thing it says is that treatment is possible if quickly administered, using drugs based on sulphonamide. This doesn't sound quite like what happened to your lambs.
So if the meningitis is caused by Listeriosis then I'll tell you what I have about that.
Listeria is a bacteria, found in soil, sheep faeces, and also contaminated silage - the contamination can spread into the soil from the faeces or silage and if sheep are fed on the ground it seems they can then pick it up while eating.
Listeriosis can spread to humans although it more commonly picked up by people eating contaminated soil eg on unwashed veg or unpasteurised milk and dairy products from affected animals. I don't know how the soil becomes infected if not by the sheep/silage - I'd look that up in a bit more depth but it may be unavoidable so it's sounds like it's more important to prevent the soil getting into the sheep.
The big emphasis seems to be on silage - listeriosis is thought to be linked to sheep fed on big bale silage and poor quality silage. It says sheep can't eat silage that's as poor as cattle would be given, hay is much safer. It should be fed in ring feeders, with any that's spilled cleared up every few days, and only enough silage put out that can be eaten within 2 or 3 days - that's because newly opened silage has less bacteria than if it's been open a few days. It seems the silage can be contaminated by soil at cutting particularly if there are lots of mole hills - it recommends cutting higher to avoid the soil.
I apologise if none of this is news to you but I thought it would help anyone else reading, still I hope this helps you understand a bit more about the infection and maybe ways to stop any more lambs and ewes from becoming ill. It is odd that no adults have been affected given that it is mainly associated with ewes, and in particular it can cause abortion, so it's important to find the potential source of any infection if it's new to your farm, as it sounds.
Very best wishes, Helen
I don't have any experience of this - to be fair I don't have much experience of anything at all as I only have 5 sheep and I've only had them for 9 months - but I do have a small library of books given to me by their previous owner, and I've had a quick look for what you've said; the books are quite old but hopefully the info is still applicable.
I can find meningitis in the section about lambs, and I can find Listeriosis - it's mentioned in sections about adult sheep but says it can affect lambs. I can't find 'listeria' but it's linked and a quick google search says the meningitis can be a manifestation of the listeriosis.
Meningitis is in the section about "lambs that are normal at birth" and there's not a lot of info - it says it's a bacterial infection that can affect lambs from a few days to a few weeks old, it originates from poor intake of colostrum and/or dirty conditions. It says the lambs would show signs of depression, blindness, yawning, and abnormal arching the head back over the neck. It says they become hypothermic because they stop feeding. The last thing it says is that treatment is possible if quickly administered, using drugs based on sulphonamide. This doesn't sound quite like what happened to your lambs.
So if the meningitis is caused by Listeriosis then I'll tell you what I have about that.
Listeria is a bacteria, found in soil, sheep faeces, and also contaminated silage - the contamination can spread into the soil from the faeces or silage and if sheep are fed on the ground it seems they can then pick it up while eating.
Listeriosis can spread to humans although it more commonly picked up by people eating contaminated soil eg on unwashed veg or unpasteurised milk and dairy products from affected animals. I don't know how the soil becomes infected if not by the sheep/silage - I'd look that up in a bit more depth but it may be unavoidable so it's sounds like it's more important to prevent the soil getting into the sheep.
The big emphasis seems to be on silage - listeriosis is thought to be linked to sheep fed on big bale silage and poor quality silage. It says sheep can't eat silage that's as poor as cattle would be given, hay is much safer. It should be fed in ring feeders, with any that's spilled cleared up every few days, and only enough silage put out that can be eaten within 2 or 3 days - that's because newly opened silage has less bacteria than if it's been open a few days. It seems the silage can be contaminated by soil at cutting particularly if there are lots of mole hills - it recommends cutting higher to avoid the soil.
I apologise if none of this is news to you but I thought it would help anyone else reading, still I hope this helps you understand a bit more about the infection and maybe ways to stop any more lambs and ewes from becoming ill. It is odd that no adults have been affected given that it is mainly associated with ewes, and in particular it can cause abortion, so it's important to find the potential source of any infection if it's new to your farm, as it sounds.
Very best wishes, Helen
#3
Posted 14 March 2012 - 15:42
Andrewaz
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- Members
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- 18 posts
Chick
Thank you so much for the above.
We think that it must be poor intake of colostrum as their mother slipped over and hurt her leg approx 8 hours after giving birth, she was struggling to stand for any length of time. We were not checking her in the night as she is a veteran ewe with plenty of milk etc and so only noticed in the morning. thought they had taken enough colostrum, but likely not given the outcome.
She had given birth suddenly outside in the rain & lambs were covered in mud when we got them in and dipped navels etc...I reckon this is how the organism got in.
The terrible thing with this is that the lambs thrive and then suddenly get ill & die very quickly hence poor outcome with antibiotics.
Lesson learnt......check all lambs/ewes hourly during first 24 hours.
best wishes, Angela
We think that it must be poor intake of colostrum as their mother slipped over and hurt her leg approx 8 hours after giving birth, she was struggling to stand for any length of time. We were not checking her in the night as she is a veteran ewe with plenty of milk etc and so only noticed in the morning. thought they had taken enough colostrum, but likely not given the outcome.
She had given birth suddenly outside in the rain & lambs were covered in mud when we got them in and dipped navels etc...I reckon this is how the organism got in.
The terrible thing with this is that the lambs thrive and then suddenly get ill & die very quickly hence poor outcome with antibiotics.
Lesson learnt......check all lambs/ewes hourly during first 24 hours.
best wishes, Angela
