kid mortality study

[Michael Garwood]

I wrote about the autopsy which was performed at a meeting of the local goat club in early May.

One of the other interesting items presented at that meeting was the results of a study conducted by the state (Victoria) agricultural veterinarian on the causes of kid mortality. The study was for the period July 2009 to March 2013, and involved examinations of 103 kids. There were limits to the study, the biggest being that the study depended on voluntary reporting of kid deaths.

I am going to try to add the poster which accompanied the presentation.

Hope it is of interest and perhaps applicable in the U.S. At least in Australia, it was a surprise to me that parasites contribute to nearly a third of kid deaths.

Michael

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[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

Thanks for sharing that! In the US they always say that parasites are the number one cause of deaths in goats, and pneumonia is number two. I find it really interesting that the graph looks like parasites are about the same as "unknown." I really think that some of my early goat deaths were deemed parasites when they should have said they didn't know, because now I look back on them and I'm sure it was actually copper deficiency. Unfortunately no one ever checked mineral levels on a goat until I insisted.