Biologics Manual Sheep Lameness Producer Report

National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Lameness Pathogen Report

Date of report:

ID:

Dear participant,

Thank you for participating in the lameness pathogen report testing portion of the NAHMS Sheep 2024 Study. This report contains results of the interdigital swabs collected from sheep at your operation. Please consider sharing these results with your veterinarian.

If you have questions about the accuracy of your results, please contact Dr. Alyson Wiedenheft, the NAHMS biologics coordinator [email protected].

Background on Lameness Pathogens:

Lameness on a sheep operation can reduce both animal production and animal quality of life. The lameness can be caused from infectious agents resulting as scald/interdigital dermatitis, foot-rot, or contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD), or non-infectious agents resulting such injury. Foot-rot is the main cause of lameness in sheep. It is important to identify the causes of lameness in sheep to provide effective treatment and management.

Reported Results:

Interdigital swab samples collected from sheep on your operation were tested for pathogens of the predominant hoof diseases (scald/interdigital dermatitis, foot-rot, or CODD) by established PCR methods. The presence (positive) or absence (negative) of these pathogens on the swabs will be reported at for each animal.

Individual Sheep Lameness Pathogen Test Results:

Sample #	Sheep ID	Dichelobacter spp.	Fusobacterium spp.	Other lameness pathogens
1		negative	negative	negative
2		positive	positive	positive
3		negative	negative	negative
4		negative	negative	negative
5		negative	negative	negative
6		negative	negative	negative

Interpretation of results

Positive:

One or more of the sheep tested on your operation were found to have lameness pathogens in their interdigital swab samples. You may want to share these results with your veterinarian so that a treatment and lameness reduction plan can be made.

Negative: None of the sheep tested on your operation tested positive for lameness pathogens in their interdigital swab samples. If your sheep are experiencing lameness, you may want to share these results with your veterinarian.