A simple system for recording lamb mortality used to improve flock management.

Many commercial sheep farmers do not record either the extent or the causes of their lamb losses but this information is essential if losses are to be reduced in the future. The major causes of death in newborn lambs are reviewed together with the common predisposing factors. The development and practical application of a simple system for recording lamb deaths is described. It is concluded that the application of this type of system, initiated, supervised and interpreted by the farmer's own veterinary surgeon, would indicate how to reduce the losses of lambs and would be a useful component of any flock health scheme.

Use of cupric oxide needles in the prophylaxis of induced copper deficiency in lambs grazing improved hill pastures.

Cuprix oxide needles as a single oral dose were administered to ewes in the prepartum period, and to one member of each pair of twin lambs at between three and five weeks of age when grazing hill pastures improved by liming and reseeding. Lambs derived from dosed or undosed ewes and treated at three to five weeks of age were maintained in normocupraemia and showed no signs of ill-thrift. Lambs derived from dosed or undosed ewes but not themselves dosed showed hypocupraemia and ill-thrift. The lambs derived from the dosed ewes took longer to become hypocupraemic, but showed only a transient benefit from the ewe treatment. The dosed ewes showed a delay in the onset of hypocupraemia compared with the undosed ewes but there were no definable differences in performance between the two groups.

A study of the effects of copper deficiency in Scottish blackface lambs on improved hill pasture.

One member of each pair of twin lambs from 37 five-and six-year-old Scottish blackface ewes, grazing reseeded pasture suspected of causing a molybdenum-sulphur induced copper deficiency in sheep, was given an injection of 12.5 mg copper calcium edetate at about eight weeks of age. Plasma copper concentrations of these lambs were maintained in the normal range by further injections of copper as required (treatment group). The remaining member of each twin pair received no copper therapy (control group). The control lambs and all ewes showed marked hypocupraemia throughout lactation, whereas the plasma copper concentrations of the treatment lambs, and also of single lambs with continuous access to unimproved hill grazings, remained normal. The live-weight gain of the treatment lambs was significantly greater than that of the control lambs, the difference in mean live-weights after 12 weeks being 2.5 kg. All lambs showed some degree of osteoporosis; this was most severe in the control lambs which had less dense bones and were also more susceptible to bone fractures and to disease. Differences between treatment and control lambs were also observed in haematological parameters and in fleece characteristics.