Protecting Your Ewes and Their Lambs This Winter

In Association with MSD Animal Health

To set your flock up for success consider pre-lamb clostridial vaccinations.

These vaccinations not only protect the ewe over the high-risk lambing period but also protect her lambs who are born without antibodies. Lambs must borrow antibodies (referred to as passive immunity) from ewes by drinking colostrum, as this provides them with temporary protection until they can mount their own immune response.

Pre-lamb vaccination is especially important for ewes bearing multiple lambs. This is because the ewe has a limited amount of colostrum & pre-lamb vaccination supercharges the colostrum so there are more antibodies to share amongst her lambs. In general, more antibodies are always better as it is never known how high the disease challenge will be. Having more protective antibodies means the chance of death and disease is reduced.

Visit www.sheepvax.co.nz/get-more-with-multine to see the results of a New Zealand study which showed that not all clostridial vaccines produce the same results. The trial conducted in The Wairarapa showed ewes vaccinated at pre-lamb with Multine®, New Zealand’s leading clostridial vaccine range, provided more protective antibodies to their lambs via their colostrum to protect them against Pulpy Kidney and Tetanus compared to Ultravac® 5-in-1. 

With a range of pre-lamb vaccine options available it’s important to consider what products best suit your needs this pre-lamb. This is because there are a number of things to consider when choosing the right vaccine for your unique farming situation including: 

- Different needs of mobs within the flock (multiple vs single-bearing ewes)

- Vitamin and mineral requirements

- An appropriate vaccine if a pre-lamb drench is deemed necessary*

To aid decision-making you can use MSD Animal Health’s free Pre-lamb Decision Guide at: www.sheepvax.co.nz/pre-lamb-decision-guide. Simply answer a series of multichoice questions and be guided on which products are likely to be best suited for different mobs within your flock. Available on the same site (www.sheepvax.co.nz), you will also find a number of other useful sheep management planning tools including a sheep vaccine planner, a flock health checklist and a selenium calculator, which are all designed to help improve animal health, sheep farm productivity and profitability. 

Protecting your investment in stock against clostridial diseases this pre-lamb should be a high priority. For a relatively small investment your valuable livestock are protected, as well as your bottom line.

* Be aware that blanket drenching of all ewes should be avoided