Catharral Fever

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:29 am

Since many of you seem to keep both cattle and sheep I wonder if anyone has any expeience of Catharral Fever (also called MCF?).

You know in Sweden we have a government and many other institutions which try to save us from all evil. As a sheep and cow owner I am very happy that we so far are free from many serious health problems, but there are occasions when one suspects over protection. We are recommended not to keep sheep and cattle to close because of the risk that the sheep pass on Catharral Fever to the cattle. Cows grazing with sheep is not uncommon at all, and that is also recommended to keep worm contamination under conrol on pasture, but when I asked a vet about keeping sheep and cows together he strongly recommended not to mix them during winter and not to give hay leftovers from the sheep to the cows. 95% of the Swedish sheeps are said to carry the infection, so statistically it would be impossible to keep them together. But I have never heard of any case Catharral Fever at all.. Is this an issue in your countries and have anyone heard of any cases?

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 1:24 pm

Malignant Catarrhal Fever does occur in UK but not frequently despite a lot of mixing of cattle and sheep. I am a vet in a practice with approximately 15000 cattle and 300000 sheep, and see one case every two or even three years. I do not know what the incidence of the virus is in british sheep, and I think it is also involved with deer, which may also be the case in Sweden. I think Wildebeeste are involved in Africa. I can't quite remember but I think that the clinical cases in cattle may well be only a very small percentage of the cattle which are infected, ie though many may have been exposed to the virus and infected very few show the signs. The problem of course is that the signs are usually very sever if they are seen and usually result in death, after fever, horrible nasal and occular discharge and corneal ulceration and oedema.

I suppose we could think of other reasons to keep sheep and cattle separate, eg leptospirosis. But there is a balance to be struck and if you want a risk free life stay indoors, eat nothing, and avoid breathing.

Duncan

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 1:46 pm

Staying indoors, eating nothing, and avoiding breathing; that sounds pretty dangerous to me

I prefer to take the risk of going outdoors, eating, breathing and even mixing sheep and cattle..

Jo Kemp · Post by **Jo Kemp** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 2:54 pm

Yet another disease to think about?
With regard to the worm control in mixed grazing - I believe the modern thinking is that it is better for the sheep to follow the cattle in the grazing rather than graze together. I do both but I use each species to 'clean' the ground and also have 2 ponies which of course don't get the majority of internal parasites of cattle & sheep with the exception of fluke.

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 10:44 pm

Anna,

please don't let my strange sense of humour worry you. Most of those who know me well have probably learned to spot when I am not being serious. Some of them will also know that I keep North Ronaldsay Sheep, a Fell pony and my Dexter cattle with little worry over mixing them or sharing grazing. I do try to keep the dogs separate from the other stock in the interests of cutaneous continuity.

But I don't spend my days worrying over Malignant Catarrhal Fever, and I would suspect that you should not either. Nor should Jo.

wagra dexters · Post by **wagra dexters** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:16 am

Cutaneous continuity is a really good idea, Duncan. Once I spent a few night hours, by truck lights, hitching up trousers and pulling down shirts on several goats, to be stitched together by our vet, after a dog attack.

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:49 pm

Don´t worry Duncan, at least I think I got what part was a serious reply and what part was joking. I was just trying to joke myself.. I may not be so good at it, but don´t worry - I may even improve by this dexter forum activies.

About diseases I worry quite a lot sometimes, but Catarrhal Fever has really not made me very nervous. Since it seems to be very rare here, I was interested to know if it is more common in other places. Which I am glad to hear it is not!

I want to use this occasion to tell how privileged I think this forum is to have such an experienced vet as a member, who is also very generous in sharing his knowledge. Thanks a lot for your reply Duncan!