Red deer are more susceptible to FE than cattle.
Fallow deer are more susceptible than sheep so they need more protection than Reds.
Prevention options include:
- Spraying pastures with fungicide. Regular spraying with fungicides provides the most appropriate control method for preventing FE in deer. Start the spraying programme early while spore counts are low.
- Zinc: the effectiveness and safety of zinc as a prevention has not been researched. If used, dose rates as for sheep (Fallow deer) and cattle (Red deer) should be followed. Because of low water intake, zinc in drinking water is not highly effective but will help in some situations.
- Provide supplementary feed such as hay, silage, meal or crop.
LEPTOSPIROSIS VACCINATION IN DEER
Leptospirosis is a widespread disease of farm animals in New Zealand, and has been a cause of severe disease in humans as well. Farmers especially dairy farmers were once the main type of group affected by this disease but the use of effective vaccination programmes on dairy farms has seen the disease reduce significantly in this risk factor group, the main group affected currently appears to be meatworkers.
Deer have been shown to be significant carriers of the disease in this country, and outbreaks in weaners can cause large losses. Vaccination is a proven method of reducing infection and spread of lepto between animals and ultimately reducing the risk to humans catching the disease.
Recent work has even shown quite significant production responses to vaccination in deer. Growth rates have been improved by up to 6.1kg in weaners and weaning percentages improved by up to 10%. This is probably the simplest way to make an improvement in your deer production for a very modest cost.
A simple programme is to vaccinate weaners at 3months of age with lepto and clostridial vaccines, autumn is a high risk time for these animals, give a booster after 4 weeks, and an annual booster to those that are retained in the herd, vaccinating hinds will give some maternal protection for the first 12 weeks after calving.
Deer are farmed in NZ for the production of export venison, velvet and by-products with approximately 95% of this product being sold to Asia. These countries prefer to buy NZ velvet because of its quality and the integrity of all aspects of its supply: our free-range farms, high standards of animal welfare and environmental care, food hygiene and safety, as well as electronic traceability. Antler is also removed for management reasons; hard antlers are dangerous weapons for both humans and other deer.
Removal of velvet in male deer is a seasonal event occurring between October – December. Velvet is removed from stags at a time when it contains nerves and a large blood supply and as such is a controlled surgical procedure.
NZ law requires that velvetting must be carried out under veterinary supervision, safely, with pain relief and with minimal stress to the stag. These legal requirements are taken extremely seriously by the deer industry, the veterinary profession, MPI and the courts.
Key Points
- By law, velvetting must be carried out under veterinary supervision, safely, with pain relief and with minimal stress to the stag.
- Deer farm owners or deer farm employees are permitted to velvet deer under veterinary supervision if they meet the requirements of a certification programme run by the National Velvetting Standards Body (NVSB). The premises they use to remove velvet must comply with MPI hygiene and food safety standards.
- To become certified, you must pass an exam that shows you have a good understanding of all aspects of velvet growth and removal. You must also demonstrate that you can remove velvet from stags safely, hygienically and with effective pain relief.
- As a certified velvetter you must pay an annual fee and have a formal NVSB contract with a supervising veterinarian.
- NVSB and MPI carry out random audits each year to ensure that everyone is complying with the NVSB and Regulated Control Scheme (RCS) rules.