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Factors affecting the prevalence and severity of footrot in a Merino flock selected for resistance to Haemonchus contortus
Author(s) -
WOOLASTON RR
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
australian veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1751-0813
pISSN - 0005-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1993.tb00809.x
Subject(s) - flock , haemonchus contortus , domestic sheep reproduction , biology , heritability , veterinary medicine , litter , zoology , medicine , helminths , agronomy , genetics
SUMMARY An outbreak of virulent footrot occurred in three lines of sheep selected for different levels of resistance to Haemonchus contortus , providing an opportunity to examine the factors affecting footrot severity. The selection lines did not differ significantly in average footrot score, but various other factors were found to have an effect. In breeding ewes, the average score was 10.2 (maximum possible score 20) and the prevalence of footrot was 96%. There was a significant age effect, with average score increasing from 9.1 ± 0.8 in 2‐year‐old ewes, to 13.4 ± 0.9 in 7‐year‐old ewes. Ewes that lost their lambs tended to have higher scores than those that either failed to lamb or successfully reared their litter. Significant differences in footrot score were caused by the lambing paddock in which the ewes had been, during the period seven weeks to one week before infection. Among lambs, aged about 20 weeks, the average footrot score was lower (5.0), as was the prevalence (75%). The score increased by an average of 0.09 ± 0.03 per day of age and the prevalence increased by an average of 0.6%± 0.3% per day of age. Lambs born and reared as twins had significantly lower scores than singles, and progeny of maiden dams had lower scores than progeny of older ewes. There was no significant difference because of the sex of the lamb. The paternal half‐sib estimate of heritability of footrot score was 0.20 ± 0.14 and of the genetic correlation between footrot score and worm egg count was essentially zero (0.02 ± 0.20), but these estimates were probably biased by the confounding of sires with lambing paddocks. Nevertheless, the results strongly suggest that there are no adverse genetic associations between resistance to footrot and resistance to internal parasites.