Necropsy as an epidemiological tool in the investigation of diseases of sheep (abstract)

Authors: Black H
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 54, Issue 1, pp 50, Feb 2006
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Subject Terms: Animal welfare, Bacterial, Biosecurity, Diagnostic procedures, Disease surveillance, Environment, Epidemiology, Notifiable organisms/exotic disease, Alimentary system/gastroenterology, Import/export/trade, Pneumonia/pleurisy, Disease/defect, Respiratory system, Infectious disease, Pathology, Stress, Transport, Zoonosis, Public health
Article class: Abstract

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Abstract: Large numbers of thorough, comprehensive necropsies can be performed very quickly in contexts such as the live sheep export trade where they were used for: case definition for voyage assessment and database integrity; determining diagnostic criteria for diseases of concern; determining the major and minor syndromes (inanition, suffocation, salmonellosis, heat stress and pneumonia) for welfare purposes; determining differences in sea transport issues for sheep between Australia and New Zealand; and training and calibration of the voyage veterinarian. A technique and checklist procedure for a 2-minute ovine necropsy has been described.
Secondly, necropsies and clinical behavioural observations during shipboard trials on vaccines for protection against pneumonia in sheep, and subsequent land-based investigations, have clarified the major risk factors in the web of causation of ovine pneumonia in New Zealand. Findings confirmed the age-related distribution of the disease, and determined the relative roles of Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, and P. trehalosi serotypes, as well as breed of sheep and heat stress, in the ovine respiratory disease syndrome. This led to practical recommendations for the management of heat stress to mitigate pneumonia in lambs on farms in New Zealand, in the absence of an effective vaccine.

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