Neurological diseases in sheep in New Zealand

Authors: Hartley WJ, Rofe JC
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 50, Issue 3 Supplement, pp 91-92, Jun 2002
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Subject Terms: Congenital disease, Genetics, Inherited disease/conditions, Neonatal, Disease/defect, Nervous system/neurology, Pathology
Article class: Summary

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Abstract: Fifty years ago, in parallel with the appearance of increasing numbers of overseas and newly qualified Antipodean veterinarians entering cattle and sheep practice in New Zealand, together with the concomitant extension and improvement of veterinary diagnostic services, the scene was set for the recognition of new diseases. Seminars for field veterinarians were held at the Wallaceville Animal Research Station and these included sessions on necropsy techniques, the removal of brain and spinal cord, submission of samples in formalin with emphasis on the collection of a detailed history and macroscopic postmortem findings. Concurrently, sheep flocks became larger and the sacrifice of individual sheep to establish a diagnosis of a flock problem became economically more acceptable. These factors, together with a free laboratory service, resulted in increasing numbers of samples being submitted for diagnostic purposes, and consequent recognition and identification of numerous hitherto undiagnosed nervous and other disease entities. This outline of ovine neurological disorders will briefly describe those entities identified in New Zealand, most of which were described in the New Zealand Veterinary Journal in the 1950s and 1960s. These entities will be mentioned, as far as possible in the order of the age of the sheep in which they most commonly occur, and a selected bibliography is provided. General disturbances of metabolism, which have signs referable to the nervous system, are excluded.

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