New project aims to eradicate sheep scab in Wales

Welsh farm leaders have welcomed the announcement of a project that aimes to eradicate sheep scab in Wales.

Due to launch in spring 2023, the All-Wales Sheep Scab Eradication Programme will be a critical step towards reducing the prevalence of the disease in Welsh flocks. 

The new three-year programme aims initially to control the spread of sheep scab, with the long-term goal of eradicating this disease from Wales altogether.

See also: Sheep scab: Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment

It has been developed by the farming industry, in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and Coleg Sir Gar, in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, and is funded by the Welsh government Rural Investment Schemes.

Sheep scab is an intense itching skin disease, caused by a parasitic mite, Psoroptes ovis. It affects more than 2,000 farms and 30% of sheep in Wales each year.

Partnership

Working in partnership with Coleg Sir Gar, Gwaredu Bovine Viral Diarrhoea, Menter a Busnes, Dwr Cymru, Lantra, Hybu Cig Cymru and the National Sheep Association, the team, including technical lead Neil Paton, lecturer in Farm Animal Health and Production at the RVC, will invite all farms in Wales suffering with sheep scab to take part. 

Participating farmers will be asked to self-report to the project staff. The team will take skin scrapes from affected sheep and, if positive for sheep scab, further bloods will be sampled for antibodies to Psoroptes ovis.

All farms that return positive results will also be dipped with an insecticide used by authorised contractors to eradicate parasites. Injectable control products may also have a  role to play.

Dr Paton said: “Sheep scab causes a severe welfare problem in flocks throughout the UK. Sheep will itch in response to infestation, to the exclusion of all else, resulting in wool loss, severe skin lesions, open wounds, weight loss and, in some flocks, death.

“By co-ordinated diagnosis and treatment, we hope to reduce the amount of disease seen in the Welsh flock and pave the way towards eradication of the mite.”

Union approval

NFU Cymru said it had lobbied hard for several years, as part of an industry-wide stakeholder group, for funding to be made available for this programme. It now looked forward to working with the project team to ensure its maximum benefit.

The union’s Livestock Board chairman Rob Lewis said: “As farmers there is no shame in having scab in the flock. The shame is only if it is not treated promptly and effectively, as there is a significant knock-on effect that this disease can have on your neighbours and the Welsh sheep flock as a whole.”