Ovine Respiratory Disease: A Pathway to Prevention

The overarching objective of this 1-year project is to develop an understanding of how best to reduce the impact of ovine respiratory disease on the UK sheep industry. Within this, the objectives are:
1)To describe the pathogenic causes of and co-infections associated with ORD:
i) To provide an update on the pathogens that directly cause ovine respiratory disease.
ii) To develop knowledge of the co-infections that pre-dispose to the development of ovine respiratory disease
2)To describe the current experience of ORD on UK farms, to investigate vaccine usage, and to look for associations
between ORD and husbandry practice at the farm level:
i) To describe the current experience of ORD on UK farms
ii) To describe associations between ORD and husbandry practice at the farm level to identify farm and individual sheep
factors and environmental stressors that predispose to ovine respiratory disease
iii) To investigate vaccine usage, and to describe their use and the barriers to their uptake.
3)To support knowledge exchange and co-development of interventions:
i) To co-develop interventions with sheep farmers that could be tested in flocks
ii) To identify the remaining knowledge gaps for development of further research
iii) To disseminate the results to the relevant stakeholders.