EPDS III - Demonstrating the impacts of Campylobacter vaccination in maiden ewes
| Project start date: | 02 January 2024 |
| Project end date: | 01 November 2028 |
| Project status: | In progress |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle, Sheep, Lamb |
| Relevant regions: | Victoria |
| Site location: | VIC: Timmering, Lockington, Diggora, Heathcote, Elmore, Tooleen |
Summary
The aim of this Enhanced Producer Demonstration Site project, in partnership with Agriculture Victoria is to conduct a vaccination trial for campylobacter to assess if reproductive outcomes in maiden ewes in the Campaspe region can be improved.
The outcomes to be assessed and improved upon in maiden ewes include an increased number of foetuses present at scanning, decreased percentage of empty ewes at scanning, increased lamb survival rate and reduced abortive/stillborn events in the control vs treatment group.
Objectives
- To investigate prevalence of campylobacter in maiden ewes in the Campaspe region. This will be carried out by conducting serosurveillance testing on maiden ewes and by submitting suitable postmortem samples from abortion/still born events. This will be investigated over ideally three lambing seasons to assess exposure over time as well as on different farms in the area to collect representative information.
- Increase awareness of campylobacter infection through vaccination adoption. Awareness will be created through presentation of prior research, results from this demonstration, guest speaker sessions as well as reflection of ewe serology and lamb postmortem results. Campylobacter has often been thought as a high rainfall issue and this project will assess its presence in a lower rainfall region to assess possible reasons for suboptimal reproduction performances.
Progress
Sheep producers in the Campaspe region of Victoria have at times observed unexpected losses between scanning and lamb-marking in young pregnant ewes. As a result, Rochester Vet, Frankie Collett with funding from MLA and Agriculture Victoria have started a three-year producer demonstration to assess if reproductive outcomes in ewe lambs and or maidens can be improved through vaccinating against Campylobacter. Currently, this disease is not routinely addressed through preventative strategies including vaccination of ewe lambs/maiden ewes and with little to no research undertaken into the incidence of Campylobacter abortion in the Campaspe region, it is difficult to provide informed advice about the need to vaccinate. Famers from 16 family farms attended their first meeting to discuss the trials objectives in September 2024 and three farms in the first year of the demonstration will investigate the incidence of Campylobacter seroconversion in young pregnant ewes and assess if reproductive outcomes in ewe lambs/maiden ewes vaccinated against Campylobacter in the Campaspe region can be improved.
This PDS is being managed by Rochester vets and Agriculture Victoria with funding from MLA.
