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Seminar

Pilot NSW Sheep Health Monitoring Program

Time:
Date:
Venue:
Presenter: 		3.30pm - 4.30pm
Thursday 16 June, 2011
Conference Room, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute
Dr Ian Links

The Pilot NSW Sheep Health Monitoring Program was implemented as an adjunct to monitoring for ovine Johne's disease in sheep export abattoirs in January 2006. Trained inspectors record a range of conditions in sheep 2 years of age or older that are a significant cause of loss to processors (trimming or condemnation), producers (production loss and costs of treatment or control) or risk to export markets. Conditions recorded include liver fluke, CLA (caseous lymphadenitis or cheesy gland), sheep measles, hydatids, pneumonia, dog bites, sarcocysts (a protozoal infection of muscle), emaciation, grass seed damage, cancer, lungworm etc.

With the introduction of NLIS (National Livestock Identification System) sheep consignments can now be traced to their property of origin, enabling reports to be mailed to individual producers on the conditions observed in their sheep at slaughter. In many cases producers would be unaware of the problems in their sheep without them being monitored.

NLIS also enables mapping of distribution of the conditions and analysis by locality, region or state.

Since July 2007 the monitoring has been extended to export abattoirs across Australia where monitoring for OJD is being conducted.

The data has been used on a National basis to review the economic importance of the various conditions. It also emphasises the importance of traceability when investigating disease outbreaks and potential animal welfare issues such as dog bites and grass seed damage.

More information on distribution (including maps) and prevalence levels are available on the NSW DPI website at http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/sheep/health/shmp

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