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A refractometer method for use on the farm, by the practising veterinary surgeon, to allow estimation of immunoglobulin levels of neonatal calf and lamb plasma is described. The results show that a good correlation exists between values obtained by this method and those obtained by the standard zinc sulphate turbidity method.

In a controlled trial in naturally-infected young ponies, oxfendazole administered orally at dose-rates of 10 mg per kg and 50 mg per kg resulted in complete elimination of Trichostrongylus axei, Parascaris equorum, Oxyuris equi and adult Strongylus vulgaris. Also, all migrating Strongylus edentatus larvae recovered from the subperitoneal tissues of the flank were found to be dead. Minimum efficiencies of 99.8 per cent and 99.1 per cent were obtained against adult small strongyles (Trichonema spp) and 97.6 per cent and 100 per cent of developing small strongyle larvae at dose-rates of 10 mg per kg and 50 mg per kg respectively. Although the arterial lesions caused by migrating S vulgaris larvae were less severe in the treated compared with the untreated animals, reductions in mean larval numbers over controls were only in the region of 49 to 59 per cent.

As every sheep farmer knows, diarrhoea is of common occurrence in animals of all ages in his flock. In lambs it can result in sigificant mortality while in older animals growth rates are reduced and weight loss can occur. Although diarrhoea can be an incidental finding in many sheep diseases, particularly in their terminal stages, only on those conditions are commented on in which diarrhoea is the predominant feature of the clinical syndrome. The subject is discussed below on both an age and seasonal basis and, if an initial assumption is made that lambing takes place at the traditional March/April period, animals will be increasing in age as the seasons progress. Thus the sequence commences in the spring with the young lamb and concludes the following winter with the adult.

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