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Wednesday, July 6, 2011
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Newest Litter
GrCH Somerhill Billy Somerhill Adela. Check out the bone on those 2 bucks on the left!
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This is the rack Chuck built me right after we moved to this farm. We had several aluminum window screens from the old farmhouse, so he... -
Tie the skein in 4 different places so that it does not get tangled during the dyeing and rinsing process. Be sure to leave it loose so...
4 comments:
What is 'codon testing'???
Sheep can have a fatal disease called "scrapie" that causes degeneration of the brain tissue. Its similar to "mad cow". There is a national plan all shepherds follow to erradicate it from the national flock. Every sheep sold has to have a flock ID tag, and brains are tested randomly at slaughter facilities. We are in the top level of this plan - the certification program. Since 1999 our flock has been monitored by USDA-APHIS for the disease, and we are now certified to be free of it. Research has found genes that show either a genetic susceptibility or resistance to the disease, and the Bluefaced Leicester association encourages testing rams to find what their genetic resistance potential is. All the rams we've had semen collected from and imported have been of the highest resistance. So a selling point for a flock is to have rams tested. In reality, scrapie has never been detected in a Bluefaced Leicester in the UK or the US - possibly because the breed has a high percentage of the resistant genetics.
Yikes! I had no idea! How many other sheep breeders are using the same screening program? Are there any known breeds that are more susceptible to this disease?
You can learn more about the certification program here. There are 50 flocks enrolled in Ohio.
http://scrapietag.aphis.usda.gov/reports/sisstate.php
We got in the program originally when we started doing AI from UK semen, because it was part of the requirements to import semen.
I've noticed that since the scrapie program became manditory - requiring all flocks that sell breeding stock or produce lambs that go into slaughter channels to have permanent ID tags so that any infected animals could be traced back, the certification program has fallen out of vogue. Even the USDA-APHIS vets don't really push it anymore. They've found it more cost effective to test sheep at slaughter facilities, and if something is found, they just trace it back to the original flock and any other flocks that might have been exposed, and work with the flock owners to find any other sheep that might be exposed or infected. Ohio had quite a few trace-backs in the first few years of the program, mostly in blackfaced flocks. That seemed to have cleaned up most of the problem, because there are fewer and fewer tracebacks each year.
Did you know that goats can also get it?
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