THE SHEEP disease, Jaagsietke might have a queer name – which comes from its origins in Africa – but it is an insidious one which should be frightening the life out of every flockowner in Scotland.
Almost undetectable other than by ultra-sound scanning of the lungs – and even at that, it is precariously diagnosed – the cancer-like lesions in a sheep’s lungs can cause untold suffering to the animal and serious economic loss.
It now seems that the disease is endemic in some flocks across the UK and is not restricted by breed or location. It sometimes can be ‘in’ a sheep, but outwardly it will show little symptoms. This means it’s difficult to control and costly to diagnose.
Hats off to those who have already embarked upon whole-flock ultra sound scan testing. 
It is a high cost investment in their breeding flocks and one which shows that some breeders have the long-term interest of their industry at heart.
But we do not know the true extent to which it occurs in the nation’s flocks and maybe one way forward would be for ScotGov to fund an abattoir screening programme of old ewes. That would give at least a working knowledge of how widespread the disease is and perhaps add impetus to controlling it.
There is no known vaccine or treatment and this might be another area to channel research support in to once the extent of infection is known. Make no mistake, this disease has the ability to hit the industry hard and, for sheep men, is just as economically necessary to wipe out than BVD in cattle.

Cooking by gas

BOTH FRACKING and tree planting came to the fore this week.
Fracking – the industry of extracting power in the form of gas for shale or coal, by hydraulic fracturing – has been banned in Scotland; while an estate in the Highlands has applied for a forestry planting licence for what is being termed ‘good arable’ land (for the area).
This has again brought focus on Scotland’s renewable energy policy, which is already the subject of grumblings from within the farming industry with regard to the amount of cropping land being used to supply bio-digester power plants.
At the risk of being simplistic, is it not better to harvest power from under the land, than it is to take it from on top of it? There’s no point in having gas for the stove, if there’s nothing to cook on it.