Weather patterns and KPIs among ‘friendly’ society’s autumn agenda

This year’s autumn meeting of the Goat Veterinary Society (GVS) was held at Taunton racecourse.

Membership of the society had topped 300 for the first time and, on his way out, one speaker commented on what a “friendly” society GVS was – being particularly impressed at how both veterinary surgeons and goat owners joined together on the day in discussion and debate.

As ever, there was a varied programme put together by the society’s meeting secretary, Kathy Anzuino.

Achieving the high health status goat herd

The first presentation was given by Emily Gascoigne from Synergy Farm Health. The ultimate aim must be health accreditation for the major goat diseases, underpinned by a deep understanding of the existing health status of the herd and the adoption of strict biosecurity principles.

She described anthelmintic resistance as being of major concern, alongside other significant infections such as Johne’s disease, caseous lymphadenitis, caprine arthritis encephalitis and TB. Obstacles to any such initiative are many including lack of quarantine, boundary management, people flow, feed stores, pasture and wildlife management. Benefits include increasing premium sale values, establishing potential health parameters for export and the protection of rare breeds and genetics.

Explaining the potential costs of these diseases to clients may encourage uptake, but sadly there are few costings available for the goat sector. Lessons can be learned, though, from the sheep sector where comparable figures are available. One problem highlighted during the discussion was the absence of fully validated tests for many conditions in goats, together with pan-species problems in diagnosis and monitoring, such as those related to Johne’s disease. Quarantine is a vital component of any plan – 28 days being the ideal figure, or “as long as possible”.

KPIs for goat kids

Kat Bazeley, also from Synergy Farm Health, had used her experiences with key performance indicators (KPIs) in the cattle sector to study kid rearing indicators (Figure 1). These included stillbirth rates, mortality rates, failure of passive transfer, treatment and growth rates. The stillbirth target should be less than 10% and can be affected by prolonged or difficult kidding, infectious agents (abortion) and trace element deficiency. If the rate approaches or exceeds 10%, then laboratory investigation is advised.

There was some good discussion with the audience on kid vigour indicators. The time to lift the head after birth was similar in lambs and kids (three minutes), and for sternal recumbency (five minutes), but kids attempted to stand much more quickly (10 minutes as opposed to 20 minutes for lambs) and to stand spontaneously after 20 minutes to 30 minutes (60 minutes to 90 minutes for lambs). Any variation from these patterns may have a long-term adverse effect on growth and survivability. Few figures are available for kid mortality targets, but the speaker identified some figures in the literature (less than 5% in the first few days while on colostrum, less than 2.5% on milk and less than 1% from weaning to puberty).

The importance of having a record of all treatments administered was emphasised and this should be less than 20% throughout the rearing period. Growth rates are influenced by factors including birth weight, genetics, nutrition and disease. Targets were again quoted in the literature – as an example, kids should be weaned at around 2.5 × birth weight.

Genetic aspects of conformation traits in dairy goats

Joanne Conington, a geneticist from Scotland’s Rural College, discussed the genetic factors influencing goat conformation – considering in particular those traits that are heritable. Factors to consider included longevity, production, health, udder and teat traits and locomotion.

An International Committee for Animal Recording document for goats is in preparation – with a conformation scoring system from one to nine – which can be easily implemented by farm staff, is repeatable and is able to reflect biological extremes. Examples were given including chest width, body depth, hindleg placement, udder attachment and depth and teat placement. The genetic basis to conformation depends on the goat phenotype and heritability, but can be confused in practical terms by the influence of a range of environmental and management factors. Heritability is described on a scale of zero to one (0% to 100%), and varies from fertility of low heritability (less than 0.1) to mature size of high heritability (0.6 to 0.8).

The dairy goat: form and function

John Matthews, goat keeper and honorary vet to the British Goat Society (BGS), then considered conformation from a different angle, based on personal experience with his own goats. The simple aim is to combine the ability to produce large quantities of milk with the least impact on overall health and welfare (Figure 2).

Traditionally, selection has been hampered by limited progeny testing, limited use of AI and embryo transplant, small genetic pools for many breeds and lack of consistency between show judges. The speaker illustrated key points by reference to BGS articles on showing goats in the 1930s – pointing out many of the key dairy goat conformation points had changed very little.

How do weather patterns affect goat behaviour?

Reporting on her student project, Sophie Venables, an RVN from PDSA, was the first veterinary nurse to address the society. Qualitative behaviour assessment descriptors were used to observe and record goat behaviour on a number of occasions in the shed, the collecting yard and milking parlour. Wind speed, temperature and humidity were measured at each recording. Although there was not much variation in weather conditions during the observation period, a number of valid observations were made. As an example, goats were more irritable and agitated during windy weather, mainly as a result of items blowing around and the noises associated with doors slamming and so on.

Wind speed reduced interactions between goats in all three situations, particularly in the shed when interactions were generally highest. The study also noted reducing light intensity in a building has a calming effect on goat behaviour and effects of external stresses.

NSAID use in goats across the UK

Michelle Croom then presented the findings of her RVC final-year project. Ms Croom works at the Milan practice on the Isle of Man. Her study was based on a questionnaire sent to goat keepers (both commercial and hobby) across the UK. No NSAID products are available with a marketing authorisation for use in goats, so any product is used under cascade prescribing principles. NSAIDs act as analgesics, antipyretics and anti-inflammatory agents.

Of the commercial producers surveyed, 100% were aware of the products’ unlicensed status, compared to only 73% of hobby owners. The main conditions treated were lameness (34%), respiratory (23%) and mastitis (16%).

The speaker hoped this survey may stimulate further investigations and research into their use in goats – possibly leading to their licensed use.

What’s new in skin diseases in goats?

Aiden Foster from the University of Bristol had previously spoken to the society and, on this occasion, began by reminding the audience of a number of conditions we don’t have in the UK, but that have been recorded as causing skin disease in goats where they do occur. These included peste de petits ruminants – a severe outbreak of which was being experienced in China – and bovine besnoitosis. Orf, although a relatively common condition in the sheep sector, seemed to be less widely reported in goats.

In a goat ectoparasites paper from Bristol (Cornall and Wall, 2015), chorioptic mange (Figure 3) was the most commonly reported infectious skin condition in goats in the UK. The speaker reminded the audience of the importance of looking for mites in the skin area adjacent to the lower limb lesions, and not from the lesioned area itself. He suggested environmental contamination may prolong outbreaks, with mites surviving in bedding of the host for at least three weeks and probably longer. He also emphasised the importance of treating affected goats twice, separated by three weeks, with the second dose aimed at killing mites hatched from surviving eggs.

Changes associated with foot lesions

The first of two papers outlining lameness outbreaks in commercial goat herds was presented by Hayley Crosby-Durrani from the University of Liverpool. In her study herd, 65% were lame or severely lame (Figure 4). Gross changes included claw deformity, papilliform hyperkeratosis, solar necrosis (rare in goats) and abnormal horn production.

Radiographs highlighted the severe pathology present, including abnormalities of the distal phalanx, new bony growth and collapse of the distal interphalangeal joint. There was a complete absence of Dichelobacter nodosus, which is considered to be the primary cause of footrot, but all samples gave a positive Treponema PCR result. Treponemes have been highlighted as being involved in the aetiology of both digital dermatitis in cattle and contagious ovine digital dermatitis in sheep, so was this a primary Treponema-associated outbreak?

Laminitis in dairy goat herds: a case study

Margit Groenevelt, formerly of the University of Bristol, and now in private practice in the Netherlands, followed with a summary of an outbreak of lameness in two other UK goat herds, showing many similarities with the previous presentation. Both herds were housed on straw with lameness incidents of 37% and 67% respectively. Lesions included solar ulcers and badly deformed feet.

Bacteriology again showed no evidence of D nodosus, but Treponema PCR tests were consistently positive. Rumen pH was assayed on one farm and these varied from 5.34 to 6.8, suggesting a degree of acidosis. The big question remains as to the exact role of treponemes in the cases highlighted by both speakers, and the potential complicating role of rumen acidosis and the solar ulcers described in this herd.

EU animal health regulation

Les Eckford, veterinary advisor to the chief veterinary officer (Wales) office, rounded off the day with a whistle-stop tour of a new EU animal health regulation, which, he stated, “would have a huge impact on all of us involved with the UK goat sector”.

The regulation was part of the smarter rules for safer food packaging – being a recast of the official food and feed regulation 882/2004. Its overall aim is to strengthen health and safety across the whole EU agri-food chain and to ensure consistency. A UK technical working group has been set up and commercial producer Kathleen Weilkopolski has represented the interests of GVS at a preliminary teleconference.

• The next GVS meeting will be a joint one with the Sheep Veterinary Society between 16 and 18 May in Skipton, North Yorkshire. If you would like to become a GVS member, visit www.goatvetsoc.co.uk