29 July 2008
BTV8
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding .
We finally got our grubby mitts on two 20ml bottles of the Bluetongue vaccine (BTV8). We were declared part of the ‘protection’ zone on Monday - so went to collect our pre-ordered allotted amount of vaccine today.
We gave each of the lambs and the big ol’ ram their 1ml shots today - the ewes will get theirs tomorrow (from the unopened bottle in the fridge).
The vaccines have come just too late to allow us take a couple of our ram lambs to the Oswestry Show this weekend - can’t move them out of the zone for 60 days. Maybe next year for showing as shearlings. Then again - at least they are protected now.
4 Comments so far...
Big Bruv Says:
30 July 2008 at 7:19 pm.
Good news about the vaccine.
Big Bruv, Laura, Rachel & Abi
farmingfriends Says:
19 August 2008 at 8:48 am.
I just wondered if you had to give them a repeat injection or is it just a one off injection? I don’t have sheep so was just wondering.
Sara from farmingfriends
Jo Knight Says:
28 August 2008 at 11:16 am.
We STILL haven’t been issued with the vaccine - & so I gather that come the glorious day when we are, the smallest bottles available will be the 100-dose bottles (not the smaller ones made by Intervet). This inevitably means that many smallholders won’t inject if they only have one or two animals as it just wouldn’t be economically viable to do so for many people. Fortunately we have enough animals that we can just about use up most of a bottle - but for those who don’t? Ridiculous.
Incidentally Sara, it’s two jabs for cattle & one jab for sheep; as for goats (which we keep) - well, inevitably the vaccine isn’t licenced for caprines, so we just have to take our chances along with our camelid-keeping colleagues. A veterinary has recommended, ideally, administering two doses (we tend to treat goats as we would cattle, rather than sheep to err on the side of caution). If we ever get our mitts on a bottle - large or small, that is….
Richard Says:
31 August 2008 at 8:50 pm.
Sorry about the tardy response - been so busy…sorry.
Yep - one injection for sheep, annually I believe. However, it is such a new vaccine no one knows whether it passes from ewe to lamb.
Bad luck on the 100-dose bottles, we got two bottles of the 20ml intervet vaccine - which was fine for our small flock.
I was reading the paper today - only 146 or so cases of BTV8 in the UK so far, compared to the devastation in the Netherlands and Belgium. The feeling is that rolled out vaccination program coupled with strong westerly winds this summer has kept it at bay. Jo, with you being on the far western fringes you are probably in the best place in terms of risk. PS: Good to see your back blogging with photos!! - and the dairy/icecream looks fab!