Control of watery mouth in neonatal lambs in the face of limited supply of Spectam Scour Halt for the 2022 lambing season

We have been made aware that Spectam Scour Halt (Ceva Animal Health) is currently experiencing availability issues, and this is the only licensed oral antibiotic for the prevention of watery mouth in neonatal lambs.

There is increasingly a good awareness that it is inappropriate to use any prophylactic antibiotics and we know that many flocks have made significant progress in reducing their use of oral antibiotics in lambs through hygiene, provision of colostrum and good ewe nutrition.  However, there were nearly 6 million doses of Spectam Scour Halt sold in GB last season and we are aware that there are still a number of vets who routinely prescribe antibiotics for neonatal lambs.

We have produced this guidance to make it clear what options are available to vets to prescribe in the event of an outbreak of watery mouth in this coming lambing season. We have consulted widely and considered alternatives based on formulation and route of administration, Antimicrobial Advice ad hoc Expert Group (AMEG) categorisation of antimicrobials and the cascade prescribing decision tree.