Basic Epidemic Prevention Measures and Technical Points for Mutton Sheep Farms
At present, the sheep industry is gradually becoming a new force in rural livestock farming, but the traditional extensive feeding and management of sheep makes it difficult to obtain relatively large economic benefits. With the development of the livestock farming industry, various modern farms have appeared one after another. How to do a good job in epidemic prevention has become the most important issue in all farms. Once an epidemic occurs, it will seriously affect the development of the livestock industry and cause huge economic losses. Therefore, original breeding farms should adopt certain measures and formulate corresponding guidelines and standards for the control and prevention of diseases, so as to ensure the continuation of breeding livestock and poultry and the stable improvement of quality. In addition, the Regulations on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases of Livestock and Poultry issued by the State Council should be strictly implemented to prevent the occurrence and spread of infectious diseases of livestock and poultry.
?1 Establish and improve a complete epidemic prevention system
??? Epidemic prevention work is a complex systematic project. It involves everything from production to sales, from inside the farm to outside the farm, and all staff at the farm, running through the entire farm from beginning to end and being closely related to it. Therefore, epidemic prevention work must be incorporated into normal management, forming an all-staff epidemic prevention system supervised and implemented by veterinary personnel with the participation of all personnel. Only by running epidemic prevention principles and systems through every link and strictly following operating procedures can the occurrence of epidemics be avoided and the epidemic prevention system be truly implemented.
1.1 Scientific program-based disinfection is an important measure to cut off transmission routes. Through regular disinfection, bacteria and viruses in the environment can be killed, parasites can be reduced, and diseases can be prevented. A regular disinfection system should be established. First, a disinfection pool must be set up at the main gate, and the effective concentration of the disinfectant solution must always be maintained; second, under normal circumstances, disinfection should be carried out once a week, and when an epidemic occurs, disinfection should be carried out 3 times a week. Quicklime, caustic soda, organochlorine preparations, complex iodine, quaternary ammonium salts and other disinfectants can be used to disinfect different sites. Specific disinfection procedure: remove all kinds of dirt in the farm, rinse the farm clean with clear water, and then spray disinfectant for disinfection to ensure disinfection quality.
1.2 All-in, all-out system. Because the "all-in, all-out" feeding method is adopted, production and transportation are relatively concentrated, which may result in a large number of chicks being introduced and uneconomical use of brooding and rearing equipment. In actual production, for large farms, it is relatively rare for the whole farm to adopt the "all-in, all-out" system; generally, the "all-in, all-out" system is adopted for whole houses. When there are sheep in the pens, it is always difficult to thoroughly clean, rinse and disinfect. The all-in, all-out system can minimize the incidence rate through isolation, which is conducive to disease control.
1.3 Registration work for personnel entering and leaving, and records of bathing and changing clothes.
?2 Formulate a scientific immunization program and carry out preventive vaccination on time.
? Immunization is an important measure to improve the body's specific resistance and reduce the susceptibility of animals. However, if used improperly, unsatisfactory results are often obtained. For this reason, attention should be paid to:
2.1 Formulate a thorough immunization plan. Vaccination with various vaccines requires a certain period of time to produce strong immunity, so corresponding vaccination plans should be made according to the onset seasons of various infectious diseases, and vaccination should be carried out according to the prescribed procedures.
2.2 There must be a scientific immunization program. Livestock and poultry cannot be vaccinated when their physical condition is poor. Some maternal antibodies can also affect and interfere with antibody titers, and may even completely inhibit antibody production. To prevent this phenomenon, monitoring of maternal antibodies should be carried out for certain infectious diseases. If conditions do not permit, the initial immunization time can be determined based on experience. Immunization will produce strong immunity in healthy adult sheep, but the effect is poor in young sheep, weak sheep, or sheep suffering from chronic diseases. For pregnant ewes, especially ewes near lambing, vaccination may sometimes cause miscarriage or premature birth due to driving, catching and vaccine reactions, affecting fetal development, and the immune effect is poor. It should be noted that in areas threatened by disease, the above results should not be taken into consideration. To ensure the health of the flock, emergency prevention and vaccination should be carried out.
2.3 Timely deworming and stomach strengthening. Parasites are important diseases harming the sheep industry. Parasites mainly include mites, tapeworms, gastrointestinal nematodes, liver flukes, etc. Regular deworming should be carried out, generally once every quarter, and it is best to use albendazole and ivermectin at the same time. Specific usage: sheep are given albendazole orally at 15 mg per kg of body weight, and at the same time 0.1% ivermectin injection is administered intramuscularly at 0.2 mL per kg of sheep body weight. This combined medication has a good deworming and killing effect on the above parasites.
The programmed prevention and control model for sheep parasitic diseases changes single parasite control to orderly overall control of major parasites, changes sporadic and intermittent treatment to organized and contiguous preventive measures, enables comprehensive deworming and prevention of parasites in the flock, and improves the comprehensive prevention and control effect. Recommended drugs: on the market there are trade names such as ivermectin, avermectin, Alijia, Afuding, Kechongxing, etc. Their characteristics are a broad antiparasitic spectrum, and they have strong deworming and killing effects on most nematodes, external parasites and other arthropods (ineffective on eggs). In addition, they also have the characteristics of high efficiency, low toxicity and safety. In clinical application, they have advantages that previous antiparasitic drugs cannot replace: first, oral administration has preventive and therapeutic effects on internal and external parasites; second, they do not produce cross-resistance with other deworming drugs. Usage procedure: (1) Ewes should be dewormed before lambing to avoid the "postpartum rise" of fecal worm eggs 4-8 weeks after lambing. In areas with severe parasite contamination, deworming must be carried out 3-4 weeks after lambing. (2) Young livestock are generally dewormed for the first time in August-September of the same year to protect the normal growth and development of lambs. In addition, because young livestock before and after weaning suffer nutritional stress, they are susceptible to parasite invasion. Therefore, protective deworming should be carried out at this time. (3) The whole flock should be dewormed 2 times each year. In late winter and early spring (February-March), larval deworming technology should be adopted. This prevents the emergence of the "spring peak"; deworming in autumn (August-September) prevents the emergence of the adult "autumn peak" and reduces the larval "winter peak." In areas with severe parasites, deworming can be increased by another 1 time in May-June to avoid the occurrence of external parasitic diseases in winter and spring. 2.4 Quarantine monitoring. Regular quarantine monitoring should be carried out for tuberculosis and brucellosis, at least once a year. Positive sheep should be promptly identified and culled. This is necessary to ensure flock health and the safety of livestock products.
?3 Comprehensive epidemic prevention focuses on prevention
? Although infectious diseases are composed of sources of infection, transmission routes, modes and susceptible animals, the factors affecting the epidemic of diseases are many-sided. Therefore, comprehensive epidemic prevention measures must be taken in many aspects, all unfavorable factors must be eliminated, and the principle of self-breeding and self-raising must be adhered to. This is not only beneficial to the feeding of livestock and poultry, but also avoids the introduction of various infectious diseases when purchasing livestock and poultry. If it is necessary to introduce breeding stock from other units, they should not be purchased from epidemic areas. However, after purchase, they must be isolated and quarantined for 1-2 days, and only after being confirmed healthy and disease-free can they be mixed and fed with the original animals. When introducing improved breeds from abroad, in addition to strengthening port quarantine, isolation and quarantine should also be carried out before entry. When diseased livestock and poultry are found, they should be strictly handled immediately.