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Issue 24 Spring 2006

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New Project Hopes To Solve OPA Riddle Scientists at Moredun are leading a new project to evaluate the potential for controlling OPA in the Scottish national sheep flock. The objective of the three year project will be to try and identify some of the risk factors involved in the transmission of JRSV, the virus which causes Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma (OPA or Jaagseikte) in sheep. OPA is an infectious lung cancer of sheep, caused by a retrovirus, JSRV. There is no treatment or preclinical diagnosis for OPA at this time and the disease is invariably fatal. OPA is a particular problem to the Scottish sheep industry with some farmers reporting the loss of 5-10% of sheep per year to this disease. Moredun has the largest research group looking at OPA and although our knowledge of this disease continues to increase, there are still lots of questions that remain unanswered. It is hoped that this project, which is being conducted in partnership with SAC and BioSS and funded by SEERAD, will help determine;

OPA leads to the production of excessive amounts of lung fluid, full of JSRV

• how common JSRV infection is in Scotland • how JSRV is transmitted in the field • how long JSRV survives in the environment • how common OPA is, how many flocks are infected and what proportion of animals are infected in an affected flock

Farms throughout Scotland will be selected at random and asked if they wish to take part in this survey. Vets from local VI centres throughout Scotland will then visit 125 farms who have agreed to take part and collect blood samples from sheep selected at random by computer. These blood samples will then be screened by the new serodiagnostic test developed by Moredun to see if the sheep are infected with JSRV. Farmers will also be visited by a researcher from SAC who will help them complete a questionnaire about the flock history of OPA and to look for possible risk factors for JSRV infection or OPA disease on their individual farm. Results of both the test and the questionnaire will be anonymous. It is hoped that at the end of this study we will be in a much better position to assess the effectiveness of various control strategies for OPA and advise farmers and vets about how they can best deal with this disease at farm level.

In this Issue Moredun supports new cattle health forms …… 2 Worm Control strategies ACME ……………………… 3 Zoonotic risks at lambing …………………… 4 Update on Chlamydial abortion …………………… 5 Summer show schedule

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