EPDS III - Demonstrating the impacts of Campylobacter vaccination in maiden ewes

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

1. 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.
2. 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

Three farms in the Campaspe region investigated the incidence of Campylobacteriosis in their young pregnant ewes in the first year of this three-year EPDS. The results from showed no exposure to Campylobacter in the unvaccinated maiden ewes. 

Entering Year 2, the group shifted focus to alternative strategies to improve sheep reproduction. Given that many producers join ewes in late spring for autumn lambing, Regulin was trialled to induce out of season joining. Three farms participated: two treated both ewes and rams, and one treated rams only. Joining occurred between October and December. Scanning results showed higher scanning percentages in Regulin-treated mobs at two sites, largely due to increased twin rates; however, at one site the control mob scanned slightly higher.

Campylobacteriosis continues to be monitored through paired blood sampling in maiden ewes during high risk periods. At scanning, 40% of sampled ewes showed evidence of prior exposure at one farm, while a single ewe showed exposure at another. Lambing outcomes will be closely monitored to assess any disease impact.