18 Mar 2025
David Harwood
Job Title
The Goat Veterinary Society (GVS) held its virtual autumn conference over two successive Wednesday afternoons, with both UK and overseas delegates attending.
The first speaker was Valentina Busin, president of the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management. It is now recognised a global problem of anthelmintic resistance (AR) to the three main anthelmintic groups (benzimidazole, levamisole and macrocyclic lactones) exists, but also to more recent groups. The main parasites involved include resistance by Haemonchus contortus, Teladorsagia circumcincta and Trichostrongylus species, but also now to Nematodirus battus and Fasciola hepatica. It is also important to distinguish between true resistance and treatment failure, for example, by underdosing.
Specific goat problems discussed included a lack of registered products, a difference in drug pharmacokinetics and a failure to develop age-dependent resistance potentially resulting in increased frequency of treatment.
We have a number of ways of assessing the level of AR, including faecal egg reduction testing, lab tests such as egg hatch assays and larval motility testing and, more recently, parasite PCR tests. The speaker then discussed the potential role of social and behavioural influences, such as knowledge transfer and dissemination, and the impact of other perceived greater problems such as sheep scab or lameness.
When considering future solutions, these included more targeted treatments using FAMACHA testing (for Haemonchosis), focusing on high-yielding goats, those with high faecal egg counts or poor body condition. Familiarity with the SCOPS principles is important, as is awareness of new approaches such as parasite vaccines and alternative compounds.
Ensuring and maintaining herd biosecurity through the show season – the next paper was presented by GVS committee members Jess Hagain and Elsie Pemble, both veterinary surgeons but both raised in a goat-keeping family with personal experiences of showing goats.
Every goat herd, no matter how small, must have a CPHH number registered with Defra. Owners attending shows should be familiar with movement licences, have good isolation facilities on their holding and be aware of the potential need to be caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAE) accredited. Show herds tend to “move around” far more than other goats, and the risks are, therefore, higher when at a show from other goats, members of the public and other species – particularly during livestock parades. This may be due to a sense of complacency – particularly as the show herd owners know each other so well.
Diseases of most concern are CAE, Johne’s disease and caseous lymphadenitis, although other health problems to consider include respiratory diseases and diarrhoea linked to the stress of transportation and being kept in tents in hot weather. Cleanliness throughout is important. All buckets and hay racks going to and from shows should be cleaned and disinfected, as should the trailer carrying the goats.
British Goat Society shows will require CAE-monitored certificates, signed by the owner, sampling vet and laboratory representative, and goats need to be tested annually. Best use should be made of the space available at shows to ensure groups of goats from one holding are separated from others, although this is often difficult.
With zero-farm background experience, the next speaker, Lesley Prior, moved from London to Devon in 2002. Having purchased a “typical hilly” Devon farm, she initially began by building up a herd of Angora goats. She learned to spin and weave and was soon producing high-quality fibre. A visit from a South African Angora breeder, however, and the advice given resulted in a switch to cashmere goat keeping and production. She was fortunate to source and purchase a complete herd of 400 from the Macauly Institute in Scotland, they duly arrived and settled in, but they were semi-feral and suspicious of human interaction.
With patience, Lesley began to gain their confidence and could then handle them more easily. A decision was made to kid in June, with perceived greater fertility in January. The cashmere harvested is the undercoat and is shed naturally in the wild, but harvested by combing, then washed to produce an extremely thin fibre.
The quality of the final product was high and attracted the attention of some high-end fashion brands. These markets expanded very successfully, but unfortunately, the farm was then the subject of ongoing dialogue with APHA due to bovine TB being found on neighbouring properties.
Repetitive testing became stressful for goats and owners who, as a result, decided to sell the goat herd. They are currently running a successful merino sheep flock using the fibre skills they have achieved along the way.
Michael Baron, from The Pirbright Institute, then updated delegates on peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also referred to as “goat plague”, although it affects both goats and sheep. It is a morbillivirus in the same group as canine distemper and rinderpest. Incubation period is 2-10 days, and clinical signs include profound depression, erosive oral lesions and diarrhoea.
Mortality rates are generally 5% to 20%, but can reach 70% in heavily infected populations. The clinical picture has overlaps with other conditions such as bluetongue, foot-and-mouth disease and sheep/goat pox. Transmission can be via direct contact or contaminated feed, bedding pasture or water supplies.
In 1996, disease was confined to parts of north Africa and India, but up to 2019 it spread into the Middle East and north Asia – but significantly into parts of south-west Europe. This has been put down to an increased movement of live sheep and goats.
Disease was first identified in Europe in Georgia in 2016, Bulgaria in 2018 and Romania and Greece in 2024 – hence the increased interest in the virus. PPR should not, however, pose any significant threat to Europe if basic biosecurity steps are taken, particularly in relation to movements of live animals.
The GVS is exploring the practicalities of keeping large numbers of goats together with horns – the vast majority of kids in the UK within the commercial sector are disbudded shortly after birth. The Blanken family from northern Netherlands and their vet, Sanne De Vries, showed us their herd via an online video call.
The Netherlands has a much larger goat population than the UK of around 500,000 (five times that of the UK), with an average herd size of 850. Most of these herds will disbud, but the Blanken herd is one of around 4% that don’t disbud. We were shown around the different groups of goats on the farm, which interestingly showed horned and disbudded goats running together. The main problem is the occasional skin lesion on the udder – related most likely to “play butting.” This subject will form the basis of more discussion at the summer meeting 2025.
Ed Salt, of Delamere Dairy, then gave a potted history of how the current goat milk supply chain has been developed. It began in 1985 and has steadily grown to where it is today. An overarching society known as the Milking Goat Association was set up in 2017, and in 2019, the first dairy goat farmer to receive the prestigious “Dairy Farmer of the Year” was announced.
The two main liquid goat wholesalers are Delamere and St Helen’s, although an increasing number of cheese makers are coming into the market. The main retail route is through the main supermarket chains, with approximately 76% going for liquid milk consumption. The speaker then addressed some of the market problems faced by the sector. Initially it was satisfying the supermarket demand for consistent all-year-round availability in a species that is seasonally breeding – and a number of out-of-season breeding policies were developed.
Consumer perception is also important – with many moving to goat milk because of health concerns – but the opposite view is that of the taste of goat versus cow milk, and consumers can be notoriously fickle.
The final presentation was from APHA vet and GVS committee member Vanessa Swinson. Up to 10 November, 159 confirmed cases of BTV-3, all in sheep and cattle, had been reported, with no confirmed cases in goats.
The Netherlands has, however, confirmed disease in goats showing they are potentially susceptible. Somewhat worryingly, a different bluetongue strain BTV-12 had recently been confirmed in the Netherlands. Information on the disease is plentiful, with the current status on the government and ruminant health and welfare websites.
The society’s summer meeting will take place on 4 and 5 June in Swindon.
