Prevention will always be better than cure.
SHEEP Measles is an interesting disease to deal with on farm, with the major effects coming from negative consumer experience from seeing and chewing cysts in their meat. With the price of meat increasing at the supermarkets and restaurants, the last thing we need is for poor experience to be had due to a cyst in the lamb rack that was easily preventable. Interestingly, only 20% of ovis-affected carcasses are detected during carcass inspection at the processing plants. This means cysts are currently making their way into our consumers gastrointestinal tracts as well. Looking at current surveillance of the Waitomo area, we see that 0.5% of carcasses are found to be infected (1427 infected carcases out of 299,835 processed between 1.10.2021 to 31.8.2022). By my thinking, if 20% are detected (over 297 farms), then 7135 carcases are actually infected just in the Waitomo area alone, which is quite a scary thought. All this for an easily preventable disease – a lot of you are proactive here and help to keep ovis at a minimum. The Droncit (praziquantel only) program on a monthly program (this means 30-35 day interval, not the first of one month and 30th of the next) prevents the tapeworm reaching the reproductive stage where eggs are passed in dog faeces onto pasture. No eggs in dog faeces means no cysts in the meat of your sheep. Another prevention strategy (I say strategy but it is non-negotiable and a requirement) is to freeze any sheep meat or offal for dog consumption for 10 days at or below -10 degrees Celsius (to kill the sheep measles cyst). Cooking meat for 30 mins at greater than 72 degrees Celsius allows for cysts to be killed as well. Preventing dogs getting into paddocks and eating dead sheep is achievable as well (as this may be the only other way to get them infected) but not always possible – dogs will be dogs at times. The neighbours pet dog that ‘sleeps on the porch but never leaves the property at night’ is also a potential ovis egg spreader. Remember, eggs from an infected dog can survive on pasture for many months and can be spread over large areas by wind and flies (up to 10km or 30,000 hectares). Some dogs can carry three or four worms which produce up to 250,000 eggs a day, which are then deposited onto pasture. Ingested cysts in meat develop into adult tapeworms in about 35 days, and the cycle continues. So, help protect the reputation and quality of our sheep meat, and if you see some ovis on your kills sheets, please talk to your vets and your neighbours to make and stick to a prevention plan for all dogs in the area (not just the workers).
