Regular treatment has foot-rot beat
Regular treatment has foot-rot beat
ROUTINE foot trimming and investing £100 in a new a footbath has helped control foot-rot in one Welsh flock.
A year ago Margaret Dalton, Gelli Garneddau, Lampeter, was planning to vaccinate against foot-rot. After years of low incidence, many ewes had developed the disease. Lambs were so seriously affected that growth rates fell steeply.
"We were very worried, and thought there was probably no alternative to vaccination," says Mrs Dalton.
But instead she and her son John decided to check and treat feet more often, culling chronic or recurring cases. They also converted a gated, concrete sided race in a shed close to the sheep-handling facilities to provide a new wider and deeper footbath.
This is large enough to confine up to five ewes for up to 10 minutes in 10cm (4in) of zinc sulphate solution. Ideally, the bath should be much longer because putting 400 ewes through takes a long time, but extending it would be expensive, says Mrs Dalton.
The extra routine foot care is hard work. "We have spent a lot of time putting batches through the new bath every fortnight or so. But it is worthwhile because we have seen few serious foot-rot cases this year," says Mrs Dalton.n
Improving footbathing and trimming has proved a viable alternative to foot-rot vaccination.