Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality?
Neonatal lamb mortality constitutes a significant economic cost and is an important welfare challenge. Despite compelling evidence for reduction strategies and cost benefits associated with them, there has been no documented reduction in mortality since the 1970’s. We aimed to evaluate whether a kno...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47101/ |
| _version_ | 1848797468253224960 |
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| author | Gascoigne, Emily Bazeley, Katrine Lovatt, Fiona |
| author_facet | Gascoigne, Emily Bazeley, Katrine Lovatt, Fiona |
| author_sort | Gascoigne, Emily |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Neonatal lamb mortality constitutes a significant economic cost and is an important welfare challenge. Despite compelling evidence for reduction strategies and cost benefits associated with them, there has been no documented reduction in mortality since the 1970’s. We aimed to evaluate whether a knowledge exchange solution could be used to define farm specific loss risks accurately. This was done by training farmers how to examine neonatal lambs post-mortem to record and interpret common causes of mortality by following a basic framework. We used participatory rural appraisal to assess some of the existing challenges to reducing lamb mortality. When considering outcomes for specific post mortem questions, there was 87.5% agreement between veterinary and farmer answers and 82.3% of farmer diagnoses (n = 96) agreed with the veterinary conclusions. When merged with farmer performed post-mortems, farm specific mortality pie-charts were developed to highlight the variation between flocks and the necessity for flock specific advice. Common challenges to reducing lamb loss included level of labour, skill set of labour, communication within teams and whether farmers generally considered post-mortems to be a valuable tool. We consider that farmer post-mortems of lambs could be a tool for the veterinary-farmer team, facilitating the communication of farm specific advice and empowering farmers to effect positive change. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:04:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47101 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:04:21Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-471012020-05-04T19:56:58Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47101/ Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? Gascoigne, Emily Bazeley, Katrine Lovatt, Fiona Neonatal lamb mortality constitutes a significant economic cost and is an important welfare challenge. Despite compelling evidence for reduction strategies and cost benefits associated with them, there has been no documented reduction in mortality since the 1970’s. We aimed to evaluate whether a knowledge exchange solution could be used to define farm specific loss risks accurately. This was done by training farmers how to examine neonatal lambs post-mortem to record and interpret common causes of mortality by following a basic framework. We used participatory rural appraisal to assess some of the existing challenges to reducing lamb mortality. When considering outcomes for specific post mortem questions, there was 87.5% agreement between veterinary and farmer answers and 82.3% of farmer diagnoses (n = 96) agreed with the veterinary conclusions. When merged with farmer performed post-mortems, farm specific mortality pie-charts were developed to highlight the variation between flocks and the necessity for flock specific advice. Common challenges to reducing lamb loss included level of labour, skill set of labour, communication within teams and whether farmers generally considered post-mortems to be a valuable tool. We consider that farmer post-mortems of lambs could be a tool for the veterinary-farmer team, facilitating the communication of farm specific advice and empowering farmers to effect positive change. Elsevier 2017-06 Article PeerReviewed Gascoigne, Emily, Bazeley, Katrine and Lovatt, Fiona (2017) Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? Small Ruminant Research, 151 . pp. 36-44. ISSN 0921-4488 Knowledge exchange Lamb mortality Post-mortem Farmer http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092144881730086X?via%3Dihub doi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2017.03.017 doi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2017.03.017 |
| spellingShingle | Knowledge exchange Lamb mortality Post-mortem Farmer Gascoigne, Emily Bazeley, Katrine Lovatt, Fiona Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| title | Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| title_full | Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| title_fullStr | Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| title_short | Can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| title_sort | can farmers reliably perform neonatal lamb post mortems and what are the perceived obstacles to influencing lamb mortality? |
| topic | Knowledge exchange Lamb mortality Post-mortem Farmer |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47101/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47101/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47101/ |