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Social behaviour and transmission of lameness in a flock of ewes and lambs
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Lewis, Katharine E., Price, Emily, Croft, Darren P., Langford, Joss, Ozella, Laura, Cattuto, Ciro and Green, Laura E. (2022) Social behaviour and transmission of lameness in a flock of ewes and lambs. Frontiers In Veterinary Science, 9 . 1027020. doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.1027020 ISSN 2297-1769.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.1027020
Abstract
Introduction: Sheep have heterogenous social connections that influence transmission of some infectious diseases. Footrot is one of the top five globally important diseases of sheep, it is caused by Dichelobacter nodosus and transmits between sheep when infectious feet contaminate surfaces, e.g., pasture. Surfaces remain infectious for a few minutes to a few days, depending on surface moisture levels. Susceptible sheep in close social contact with infectious sheep might be at risk of becoming infected because they are likely to step onto infectious footprints, particularly dams and lambs, as they cluster together.
Methods: High resolution proximity sensors were deployed on 40 ewes and their 54 lambs aged 5–27 days, in a flock with endemic footrot in Devon, UK for 13 days. Sheep locomotion was scored daily by using a 0–6 integer scale. Sheep were defined lame when their locomotion score (LS) was ≥2, and a case of lameness was defined as LS ≥2 for ≥2 days.
Results: Thirty-two sheep (19 ewes, 9 single, and 4 twin lambs) became lame during the study, while 14 (5 ewes, 5 single, and 4 twin lambs) were lame initially. These 46 sheep were from 29 family groups, 14 families had >1 lame sheep, and transmission from ewes to lambs was bidirectional. At least 15% of new cases of footrot were from within family transmission; the occurrence of lameness was higher in single than twin lambs. At least 4% of transmission was due to close contact across the flock. Most close contact occurred within families. Single and twin lambs spent 1.5 and 0.9 hours/day with their dams, respectively, and twin lambs spent 3.7 hours/day together. Non-family sheep spent only 0.03 hours/day in contact. Lame single lambs and ewes spent less time with non-family sheep, and lame twin lambs spent less time with family sheep.
Discussion: We conclude that most transmission of lameness is not attributable to close contact. However, in ewes with young lambs, some transmission occurs within families and is likely due to time spent in close contact, since single lambs spent more time with their dam than twin lambs and were more likely to become lame.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QL Zoology S Agriculture > SF Animal culture |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) | |||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Sheep , Sheep -- Behavior , Sheep -- Diseases , Lameness in sheep , Footrot in sheep, Sheep -- Infections | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Frontiers In Veterinary Science | |||||||||
| Publisher: | Frontiers Research Foundation | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 2297-1769 | |||||||||
| Official Date: | 1 December 2022 | |||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 9 | |||||||||
| Article Number: | 1027020 | |||||||||
| DOI: | 10.3389/fvets.2022.1027020 | |||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 2 December 2022 | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 5 December 2022 | |||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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