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The Importance of Shearing Your Sheep

The Importance of Shearing Your Sheep

Shearing is the process whereby the sheep’s fleece or wool is removed using  shears called ‘handpieces’. The fleece needs to be removed regularly because it grows continuously.  Sheep should be shorn annually. Unshorn wool could eventually impede movement. Sheep can overheat and die in the summer months if not shorn, and become the target for parasitic species such as ticks, lice, mites, and the maggots that cause fly strike, a gruesome and even deadly condition.

 

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Season 7, Episode 5: Understanding Hog Trailer Contamination and Re-Contamination

Video: Season 7, Episode 5: Understanding Hog Trailer Contamination and Re-Contamination

Biosecurity and foreign animal disease preparedness extends beyond the farm. This episode looks at the risk of contamination on hog trailers as pigs move from different parts of the state to harvest plants.

Dr. Cesar Corzo, associate professor at the University of Minnesota and leman chair for swine health and productivity, and Lucas Ferreira, research assistant and PhD student at the university, discuss how their trailer research got started, how trailers can be exposed to pathogens and where contamination can occur during the transportation process. They also discuss trailer washing, PPE and opportunities to break the chain of contamination and strengthen transportation biosecurity.