2025 UK Lambing Survey
This study is a repeat of a survey we ran at the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Science and Medicine during the initial outbreak of Schmallenberg virus in Europe in 2012/13 and again during the outbreaks in 2017 and 2023. The 2017 study is available at this url (open access): https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1136/vr.104866 . We would like to gain an idea of the impact of the virus and the scale of the outbreak this year to add to our knowledge of the cyclical pattern of Schmallenberg virus. As both Schmallenberg Virus and Bluetongue virus are spread by the same midges and may cause the same types of lamb and calf deformities we have also added some questions about Bluetongue. There are also a small number of questions around general lambing practices and antibiotic use at lambing time at the end that are optional but are useful information to gauge what other problems you are seeing at lambing time.
We will provide a summary of the findings of the survey if you provide us with a contact email at the end of the survey. We may also contact you (if you provide an email) to participate again next year when we have a better idea of bluetongue circulation in the coming year. The survey is anonymous, we ask for the first half of your farms postcode to be able to map responses by county but otherwise your holding will not be identifiable. Information gathered from the survey may be passed to other organisations such as the APHA to help inform their response to these viruses. If you manage more than one flock it will be easier to fill this survey form in for each flock separately.
