OAHN Small Ruminant Research Project 1: Distance support for on-farm investigation of adult small ruminant mortalities
Project Lead: Dr. Maria Spinato
Collaborators: Dr. Paula Menzies, Dr. Andria Bitton-Jones, Dr. Jocelyn Jansen, Ms. Jeanette Cooper
Little is known about causes of mortality in adult sheep and goats, likely because of a lack of investigation into adult deaths and limited postmortem technique when an investigation does occur.
The “Distance support for on-farm investigation of adult small ruminant mortalities” project was developed to investigate which diseases cause mortality in Ontario’s sheep and goat populations. An on-line tool was designed to encourage postmortem submission and to assist in improving the technique of veterinarians performing on-farm postmortems for adult animals. To date, 48 postmortem cases have been submitted through the project, with only 7 cases remaining undiagnosed. Diagnoses in sheep include: nasal tumours, copper toxicity, and hemonchosis, among many others.
Focus groups are now being arranged with veterinarians and producers who have submitted a postmortem using the on-line tool. The project’s webpage can be found here: https://www.uoguelph.ca/srmort/
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