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Neonatal losses in lambs

THE bulk of lamb losses occur in the neonatal period. Efforts to reduce this loss can be economically rewarding. But it is essential to include infective abortion and ewe nutrition when counting the number of losses, as the numbers of weakly and underweight lambs produced when such conditions are present, can strongly affect the mortality level. Other managemental and climatic conditions are also important, particularly in hill sheep where neonatal loss can range to 20 to 25 per cent and occasionally higher, because of starvation and exposure. Losses in upland and lowground flocks are lower though the range is wide being from 5 to 15 per cent. An overall loss of 10 to 12 per cent is probably a conservative estimate of the loss of lambs born to term, ie, excluding abortions and premature births. Certain conditions, though presenting as clinical disease when lambs are past the neonatal period, are contracted at birth or soon after. They should be considered in this group. Surveys on the causes of neonatal deaths where post mortem examinations were carried out, indicate that deaths due to disease account for some 18 per cent of the total. So control measures must go beyond disease. In most of the surveys none of the flocks suffered an outbreak of neonatal "disease" and where such diseases did occur the proportion of the loss from infection was appreciably altered. It is on these outbreaks that the veterinary surgeon is generally consulted.