Five pillars strategy of ovine footrot control

Abstract

Various footrot control interventions have been implemented in the past in various regions all over the world. They include phenotypic (Bennett and Hickford, 2011) or genotypic selection (Niggeler et al., 2017, Gaspar et al., 2024) of less sensitive sheep, vaccination (Dhungyel et al., 2008, Dhungyel et al., 2014), antibiotic treatment (Kaler et al., 2010, Strobel et al., 2014, Kraft et al., 2020), careful hoof trimming and repeated footbathing in disinfectant solutions (Gelasakis et al., 2019, Hardi-Landerer et al., 2019) and combinations thereof. The goals of these interventions are to sustainably decrease incidence and severity of lameness caused by footrot, but not to completely elimination Dichelobacter nodosus (D. nodosus) from flocks or even national populations. This is in clear contrast to diseases such as f.e. foot and mouth disease, for control of which, complete elimination of the causative agent from the susceptible population is envisaged. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first description of the “five pillars strategy of ovine footrot control”, representing a footrot control program that envisages the elimination of the virulent strain of footrot from the majority of flocks in Switzerland. The strategy represents a condensate of evidence-based knowledge gained (i) in the frame of targeted previous research studies including a basic Doctorate thesis (Janett, 1993), (ii) from research published in the international literature and (iii) from a long-term close collaboration with the veterinary authorities of the Canton of Grison, that allowed step by step implementations of various measures. The “five pillars strategy of ovine footrot control” was tailored for agricultural structures characterized by small sheep flocks, frequent animal traffic and commingling of flocks of different origin for pasturing.