An education campaign has reduced the number of sheep condemned because of sheep measles.
However, a lamb buyer with Sunterra Meats said the disease still hasn’t been eradicated, even though fewer carcasses are being found with the tell-tale measle-like spots after slaughter.
“It’s a continuing problem,” Randy Smith said. “It’s when the feedlot lambs go to slaughter.”
Also known as C. ovis, sheep measles is not a disease of sheep but a stage in a tapeworm that affects dogs and coyotes. The tapeworm must infect sheep to complete its cycle.
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Smith said sheep measles is most often seen in the late winter and early spring as lambs come to slaughter from the feedlot.
Dogs shed the tapeworm eggs through their stools. The eggs can survive on the pasture for more than six months.
Grazing sheep eat the eggs and the eggs hatch in the sheep, which then develop cysts in their muscles, livers, lungs and diaphragms.
The sheep shows no ill effects from the cysts, which are found only when the sheep are slaughtered and carcasses condemned.
Smith said Sunterra can now use information from the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency’s ear tags to notify feedlot operators that they must become more vigilant in deworming their guardian and stock dogs.
Dogs and coyotes can become reinfected with the tapeworm by eating infected sheep carcasses.
Smith said it was common two years ago for Sunterra to condemn 20 to 25 head for sheep measles out of a load of 300 to 400 lambs. Last year that number dropped to seven to 12.
“It’s getting better. This year is down dramatically from the year before.”
Alberta Lamb director Irene Rutledge said she doesn’t believe sheep measles is a significant problem, but the organization runs an educational program on the need to deworm dogs and ensure that dogs and coyotes don’t eat dead sheep.
