Maintaining the health of your goats and sheep is critical to attaining your farm production goals. Disease and parasite management ensures your herd grows sustainably, eliminates human health risks, and production of sheep and goat products with acceptable market and welfare standards.
Considering poor health management leads to significant quality and quantity losses in sheep and goat production, you will have to establish a sound disease and parasite prevention and treatment plan.
Where to Start?
Learn to Identify Unhealthy Sheep/Goats in the Flock
Understanding the normal health status and behaviour of your flock under optimal production conditions is a key benchmark to identifying disease and parasite problems.
Clinical signs of most diseases are notable in your sheep or goats’ behaviour, appearance, production, and habits that vary from their regular healthy status.
Signs of a Healthy Goat and Sheep
Healthy sheep and goats exhibit normal behaviour and body conditions listed below.
– A normal rectal temperature range (Goats 38.5°C–39.7°C, Sheep 38.3 °C–39.9°C
– Normal respiration rate 12 to 15 breaths per minute
– Normal resting heart rate of 70-80 beats per minute
– Healthy coat or fleece
– Appropriate body condition score according to age
Notable changes differing from the above behaviour or body conditions act as an indicator for closer inspection and diagnosis of possible diseases or parasites.
Signs of an Unhealthy Goat and Sheep
– Self-isolation from the flock
– Diarrhoea
– Grinding of teeth
– Abnormal vocalisation
– Abnormal eating behaviour
Identifying some of these signs can lead to a clinical diagnosis of a disease in your sheep or goat. Consult with your vet to make a proper clinical diagnosis and set up prevention, management, and treatment strategies.
Develop Disease and Parasite Prevention Strategy
It is highly recommended to take a proactive approach to safeguard your flock from disease and parasite build-up. Developing biosecurity measures that limit the spread or transmission of infectious agents, parasites, or physical harm and appropriate animal husbandry practices is vital for your farm’s success.
The following are some critical areas of importance in disease and parasite prevention strategies.
Protect your Sheep/Goat Flock from Infected/Contaminated Areas, Equipment, or Animals
Identifying possible disease and parasite buildup causes and the transmission modes from physical, chemical, or biological interactions enables you to set up biosecurity measures.
Limiting the chances of your flock interacting with infected animals, parasite-infested areas, unhygienic equipment, contaminated feed/water, and wild animals, reduces the risk of disease and parasites.
Promote Proper Breeding Techniques and Systems
Avoid breeding practices that lead to heritable diseases in your flock. Avoiding practices like inbreeding ensures your flock remains healthy and free from genetic complications. Always review the breeding records to guide you in selection when breeding to promote traits that develop disease-resistant flocks.
Through culling, you can eliminate the passing down of traits that place your flock at developing hereditable diseases or complications resulting from certain traits. Engaging your vet to offer a farm-specific breeding program is essential to provide identification of disease-related traits or hereditable diseases to ensure your flock’s growth is health-oriented.
Provide Recommended Housing Requirements and Hygienic Standards.
The size, design, and sheep/goat breed selected will determine your stocking density. The ability of your structure to offer recommended housing standards for optimal living conditions directly influences the health of your flock. The housing and equipment available further influence your ability to perform sheep/goat husbandry practices that promote healthy production.
Consult on housing designs that promote hygienic production in your sheep/goat farm to reduce risks of contamination of feeds or leading to the buildup of disease agents that can risk the health of your flock.
Develop your Access to Vet and Animal Expert Access
Regularly seeking animal experts’ insights is key to ensuring your farm constantly adapts to contemporary practices in diseases and parasite management. Build dependable connections with vets to ensure you are up to date with your husbandry practices as your farm grows.
For example, insights on the vaccination programs suitable for your flock can help you to avoid catastrophic losses resulting from a lack of expert farm-specific husbandry practices.
