THE Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) has launched a new surveillance program this year in a bid to identify the cause of newborn lamb deaths and ewe abortions.
DAFWA program co-ordinator Dr Anna Erickson said the cause of ewe abortions and lamb deaths often go undiagnosed, leaving sheep producers with few answers when trying work out why lambing percentages have dropped.
"Historically we've got a pretty low rate of making diagnosis for abortions issues," she said.
"People will get to marking and realise they didn't get the lambs they thought they would from their scanning results.
"By that point the only thing you've got available to test is the ewe and that's not the most useful thing.
"The best way to get a diagnosis is to have a sample of the lamb that you lost, whether that be as an abortion or at the time of birth and immediately after birth."
Dr Erickson said the surveillance program would allow farmers to collect and freeze samples to be tested by DAFWA to diagnose a range of exotic diseases including toxoplasmosis, Q Fever, campylobacteriosis and listeriosis.
Samples are also tested for some significant causes of sheep abortion that do not occur in Australia such as Brucella melitensis and enzootic abortion of ewes with negative test results used to ensure WA and Australian sheep can be exported to existing or new markets.
The program, which is being rolled out over the coming weeks, would help provide a more accurate diagnosis and allow producers to control infectious diseases, she said.
About 300 sample kits will be available through DAFWA field and private veterinarians.
Each kit includes an esky, sample pots, sampling guides and submission forms and gloves.
Sheep producers are encouraged to collect fresh samples and freeze them.
Samples should be submitted once they have been collected from at least three lamb abortions or newborn lamb deaths.
Samples are then returned to either a DAFWA field or private vet, with DAFWA covering the cost of laboratory testing.
"Producers should start collecting as soon as they spot (a death) because you never know if that is the start of a problem or just one of those things," Dr Erickson said.
"Producers as well as their nominated vet or consultant will receive the laboratory test results so they can assist with interpretation and recommend management strategies that could be contributing to infertility, foetal loss or lamb deaths."
The free service for sheep producers is part of a range of measures to try and increase WA's shrinking sheep flock.
According to latest Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates, WA's sheep flock for 2015/16 is at 13.8 million head and it has the lowest production rate in the past five years compared to all other States.
