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Toxaemia of Pregnancy (Twin-Lamb Disease) in Sheep: Its Experimental Induction and Practical Prevention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

H. B. Parry
H. B. Parry*
Affiliation:
Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, University of Oxford
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Extract

Toxaemia of late pregnancy (twin-lamb disease) is one of the principal causes of loss of in-lamb ewes in Great Britain. The mortality rate from this disorder alone in individual lowland flocks reaches 20% in certain seasons and occasionally 25% of the flock, even in winters when exceptionally severe weather is not experienced. In hill sheep with their lower lambing rate the disease is said to be infrequent. While no data are available for the loss from this disorder for the whole country, a conservative estimate, based on my own figures, is that 2% of the lowland lambing flocks die in an average season. If half of the 11 million breeding ewes in the United Kingdom are considered as lowland sheep, the total deaths each year from toxaemia are probably about 100,000 ewes and 200,000 lambs, representing a loss to the sheep industry of between £1 and £2 million per annum. In a difficult season such as 1954-55, the loss is probably nearer £2-5 million. As the disease is widespread in many of the principal sheep-rearing areas of the world, the annual loss in the Commonwealth, with over 100 million breeding ewes, is probably of the order of £10 million per annum.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production , Volume 1955 , 1955 , pp. 52 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1955

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References

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