Candidate: Kassab, Jacqueline

Understanding the Common Management Practices for Clostridial Disease in the South Eastern Local Land Service Area of NSW

Kassab, Jacqueline
University of Sydney
om.dhungyel@sydney.edu.au

Abstract

This is an active project. The following is a summary submitted with the application. It will be updated when the student’s abstract/thesis is received.

Despite the availability of clostridial vaccines and regular vaccinations, clostridial diseases continue to cause outbreaks in sheep farms across Australia. As a pilot study this project aims to gain a detailed and personal approach to better understand the common management practices in the SELLS (South East Local Land service) region of NSW.

The expected outcomes of the proposed project are as follows:

  1. How clostridial vaccines impact clostridial disease prevalence in sheep farms. – generate mortality data due to clostridial diseases in the area.
  2. Measure perceived mortality reduction due to Clostridial vaccination.
  3. Understand the cost benefits of vaccinating sheep for clostridial diseases.
  4. Identifying the most prevalent Clostridial disease in the area.
  5. The efficacy of current vaccines usage in the area.
  6. The role of veterinary services in general sheep health and vaccination support.

This project will be a questionnaire-based survey study to understand sheep health management practices and their impact on sheep farms within the New South Wales South East Local Land service (SELLS) of NSW. I will be formulating two separate surveys, one for the farmers and the other aimed at local district veterinarians. The surveys will be sent out through emails and mailed to farmers that do not have access to internet. REDCap is the web application that will be utilised in this study to build and manage the surveys. The farmer respondants will be selected at random and only require to be within the SELLS area and have a sheep farming enterprise.

The surverys aim to gain a better understanding of:

  1. Common sheep health management practices and their impact at the farm level.
  2. Farmers’ perception about sheep health and welfare and their impact on production.
  3. The availability, accessibility and need for veterinary services and information.