Sea water in the treatment of inanition in sheep

Authors: Black H
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 45, Issue 3, pp 122, Jun 1997
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Subject Terms: Animal welfare, Alimentary system/gastroenterology, Nutrition/metabolism, Wasting disease/disorder, Biosecurity, Diet/rations/food, Import/export/trade, Minerals/elememts, Transport, Water
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Inanition continues to be the major cause of mortality for sheep transported by sea from New Zealand to Saudi Arabia. Sheep exported live from New Zealand are generally in the 1-2 year age range, and have strong feeding drives, so that illness and death from inanition usually results from the unavailability of feed (the less aggressive “shy feeders” get to the trough after the supply has been exhausted), rather than from anorexia as may occur in older sheep. The live sheep export trade from New Zealand now has a recommendation for the ad lib provision of feed in shipboard troughs, but this has not yet been fully implemented. Veterinarians and stockmen accompanying New Zealand voyages, and the ship`s sheep house seamen, often remove sheep showing the hollow flanks and/or depression of inanition to hospital pens where there is less competition for feed trough space. In the hospital pens, a high proportion of…

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