Welcome to Yan Farm Health News
November 2025
In this issue we discuss:
- Dates for your Diaries
- Bluetongue Update
- TB in the area
- Trace Element Round up
- Youngstock Treatment at Housing
Dates for your Diaries:
Milksure Course: Friday 23rd January 10am - 12noon. Bleaze Farm, Old Hutton. This 2 part course is centred on residue avoidance in milk, it also covers other areas of good medicine stewardship such as:
- Adhering to correct treatment protocols
- Medicine storage
- Reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance.
This course is both milk contract and Red Tractor compliant. To book your place please contact our office team on 01539 327000.
Bluetongue Update
The total number of BTV-3 cases in Great Britain for the 2025 to 2026 vector season (since July 2025) is 121. There have been:
- 117 cases in England
- 4 cases in Wales
There has also been two confirmed cases of BTV-8 cases in England. We would like to remind you that bluetongue is a notifiable disease and must be reported if suspected. Please ring the practice if you are concerned you may have a case or ring APHA directly on 0300 0200301. The location of all premises in Great Britain where one or more animals have tested positive by PCR to bluetongue serotype 3, serotype 8 or serotype 12 is available on the bluetongue case map. If you are purchasing stock it would be prudent to consider where they are coming from whilst BTV is still circulating. We have had really good uptake of the vaccine which will help protect our livestock from BTV if you haven’t yet vaccinated but would like to discuss further please give the office a ring and speak to one our vets.
TB Update – Control the Controllable!
Unfortunately, TB (M.bovis) seems ever present of late with a number of new radial testing zones declared in 2025. Radial testing is carried out to check for spread of TB to neighbouring cattle herds and to ensure that any undetected source of local infection is identified. They are declared around all new TB breakdowns in the Low Risk Area. In practice this means an animal has had visible lesions at slaughter and/or a positive PCR test/cultures from samples taken at post mortem examination. At present we will have more farms on 1 yearly testing than we do on 4!
This means we are experiencing exceedingly high demand for pre-movement testing– Please make sure you give us a minimum of 2 weeks notice for pre movement testing otherwise we may not be able to fulfil your requests.
In the low risk area (which includes Cumbria, North Yorkshire and North Lancashire), the greatest risk to bringing TB on to your farm is through cattle movements and high risk trading. Purchasing cattle brings risks of many infectious diseases not just TB. However, we appreciate that purchasing stock is essential for the normal operation of many farm businesses. If you need to purchase stock do your best to establish the sellers TB history before you buy and if buying out of the ring aim to buy locally or from low risk areas. There is a great website which you can use to check any farm or animals TB history called ibTB map: ibTB - Mapping bovine TB (bTB) in England and Wales. This website allows you to put in a CPH/postcode or even an individual eartag to see the TB history of an area, farm and the animal in question. Using the drop-down bar on the left hand side you can change the search so you can see both locations under restrictions at present and those previously under restrictions. Neighbouring stock can also present a risk to your farm. In our area you may have a lot of neighbours! However, it is time to consider this risk and consider the ways you can help reduce contact with neighbouring stock. This may be through double fencing (which can be achieved with a temporary electric fence unit), planting hedges or working with your neighbours with the aim of grazing at alternate times on boundary fields. At present there is little evidence that wildlife infection is significant in our local area – Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale and Ulverston (however wildlife infection has been identified in two areas of North Cumbria). We need to do our best to keep it this way as once the wildlife become infected our ability to control the spread of disease becomes a lot more difficult. Making your farm less appealing to badgers is still a sensible step to take in protecting your herd and the wildlife population. The key aim of this is reducing their accessibility to fresh feed and water: they particularly like maize and lick buckets! For more information on all the above sign up for a free TBAS visit carried out by one of our trained vets.
Trace Element Round Up
Cobalt deficiency has been a common finding from recent trace element testing, so what is it and why is it important?
- Cobalt is a component of vitamin B12 which has an essential role in energy metabolism
- In ruminants B12 is synthesised by rumen microbes, a process which requires a sufficient source of cobalt in the diet.
- If dietary cobalt is insufficient, then signs of deficiency or ‘pine’ can be seen
Growing lambs after weaning are the most sensitive to deficiency and this is where we generally diagnose any issues but these deficiencies can also affect ewes performance and fertility. Deficiency will also have an impact on immunity- particularly important as vaccination against killers such as Pasteurella and Pulpy kidney may be less effective. High worm burdens go hand in hand with cobalt deficiency, creating a vicious cycle as high parasite burdens impair B12 absorption, and poor immunity means lambs are less able to deal with a worm challenge. In addition to the common theme of Cobalt deficiency we also had a few farms with very low Selenium and or Iodine levels. Testing for trace elements generally starts with bleeding 5-6 lambs or ewes per group to check their levels. Testing this year’s lambs now even if you don’t have many left will allow us to correct any issues and also allow us to forward plan to correct issues earlier in younger lambs next year. Testing ewes now will allow us to make a plan for supplementation pre lambing to help ensure the lambing season goes well with plenty of colostrum and strong lambs being born. There are several options for treatment/prevention including drenches, boluses, long and short acting injections. Please speak to one of the vets about what might be most appropriate on your farm.
Youngstock Treatments at Housing
Gut worm and fluke burdens in cattle youngstock can reduce growth rates before the signs of scour are seen. Housing is a convenient time to treat but we should consider if it is necessary and if we are using the correct product. Check if youngstock need treating for gut worms by carrying out a faecal egg count. If they do need worming, this is the time of year to use a macrocytic lactone. This is a wormer that ends with ‘ectin’, for example ‘ivermectin’. These wormers are particularly toxic to dung beetles and so are not good for soil health, but we can limit their use by reserving them for our ‘housing dose’. They have the advantage at housing because they can kill larvae that overwinter in the guts of the cow. They come as either injectable or pour on products. Pour on products are convenient but the dose received by the animal can be variable, so use injectable if possible. Leaving some animals unwormed (fit animals that are showing no signs of a worm burden) helps reduce the development of drug resistance and is appropriate on lower risk groups. Older cattle do not generally need treating for gut worms as they develop resistance with age, but this does require exposure at grass. On average this would be about 8 months of grazing pasture that has been grazed by cattle the previous year, so it may be 2 seasons before they achieve resistance. Youngstock which are ‘over protected’ by wormers during the grazing season are slower to gain immunity. It is often convenient to combine the housing wormer with a fluke treatment. There are several combination injections available containing a ‘mectin’ and a flukicide. It is a difficult time of year to use muck samples to check for fluke eggs, as the fluke may not be old enough to produce eggs. This is why we often treat for fluke at this time of year regardless, if there is a history of fluke on the farm (e.g. abattoir reports, or positive faecal egg counts at other times of year). If the fluke history is not known, you can wait after housing and carry out blood tests or faecal tests to determine if they have been exposed. The fluke treatments generally have to be repeated in late winter as they will not have killed the very recent fluke. At this point a combination should not be required; just a flukicide. These are mostly drenches, with one pour on option. Again, the convenience of the pour on is countered by its potentially variable uptake. Cattle do not develop immunity to fluke so they need treating regardless of age, if you know they have been exposed. As always, check withholds and licenses; in calf dairy heifers have limited products available. We can advise, and update your health plan protocols where necessary.
Contact Us:
Tel: 01539 327000
Office Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 8.15am - 4pm
Email: office@yanfarmhealth.co.uk