GAMEKEEPERS HAVE reported a disappointing grouse breeding season, leading to the cancellation of a number of shoots across the country.

With the shooting season beginning on August 12, preparations have been underway to welcome visitors back to Scotland's grouse moors after Covid restrictions disrupted last year's season.

Last October, The SF heard from game bird veterinarian Matt Balfour that good animal husbandry and effective disease monitoring had ensured the season had got off to a good start – however, nine months down the line, the picture isn't so rosy.

"In the lead up to the Glorious Twelfth, we have seen a difficult breeding season for grouse and counts are often returning poor numbers compared with previous years," reported Mr Balfour. "It has been disappointing to hear that due to the very poor counts in certain areas, some shoot days have been cancelled, which has caused extra pressure on shoots and gamekeepers following last year’s restrictions and disruption."

Mr Balfour and his team of local veterinary surgeons from St David’s Game Bird Services in Edinburgh have been busy working with grouse moors and monitoring the health of birds submitted for postmortem.

To improve disease monitoring in the sector, he is urging gamekeepers to take a proactive approach by submitting grouse carcasses for Total Worm Egg Counts (TWCs), coccidiosis counts, louping ill testing and cryptosporidiosis testing, in order to ensure that issues can be identified at the earliest opportunity.

"Once we have completed these postmortems, we are then able to provide advice and recommendations in relation to medicated grit where necessary," he explained. "In addition, we are able to offer site visits and sampling assistance/training during shoot days," he explained.

Last year, Mr Balfour reported seeing lots of positive Louping ill antibody results, indicating exposure of the bird to this disease previously in its life. Louping ill affects both sheep and grouse and has been shown to cause high mortality in grouse chicks.

"It is important to control the disease within grouse, and this is done most effectively through giving tick treatment to sheep grazing the same moorland," he previously stressed.

Commenting on this years findings, he reported high T.tenius and tapeworm burdens in many grouse submissions.

"A heavy worm burden can be a gateway to the introduction of further disease as the bird is already compromised," he continued. "After the disruption to last year’s season and the difficult breeding season we have experienced this year, it is important that disease is not a limiting factor to the performance of the shoot.

"As grouse are not reared or kept in captivity at any point in their lives, the majority of our work focuses on effectively managing their wild habitat to protect and encourage their numbers, and to monitor any risk of disease or parasites within the birds," he explained. Now that the season is underway, this work can start apace, and we can build up a more comprehensive picture of local disease challenges."