Mark Billadeau

We’ve had major changes in our LGDs over the past year. Sam, our maremma, after the 2022 lambing got to the point he could no longer stand, he was 12yo. Right after Christmas Wendy, our Kangal, died suddenly. She was herself Tuesday afternoon and dead Wednesday morning on one of her sleeping spots; no signs of injury or illness. With the help of a couple of friends we were able to locate and bring home a 6yo Anatolian male and a 1yo Anatolian cross female that have been working together on a sheep farm with 700 ewes. The sheep accepted Duke and Penny and they seem content on our farm. LGD zoomies They have made their presence known to the pack of coyotes we hear just behind our trial field.The next task is to make sure Duke and Penny accept our Border Collies; an important step to complete prior to lambing in March.

1. I pick from a litter where both parents are working sheep (and I have knowledge of known genetic diseases) 2. I pick from a litter where I like/admire the working ability/style of one or both of the parents See my comments on traits being controlled by genetics to understand why 1 & 2 are very important for picking out a pup 3. I pick a pup that appeals to me emotionally because I’ll try harder for that one 4. I pick the pup that wants to be with me more than the others because it will want to try to please me You asked a question that was more geared towards picking a pet/companion and then veered into a question of breeding (on a site that promotes only breeding for livestock work, see “welcome to the boards read this first”) which is likely why you got responses you were not wanting/expecting.

However, dogs won’t perceive ewes with lambs as a threat to me; depending upon the situation they won’t perceive rams as a threat to me. It’s one thing to be protective of their partner who is standing nearby, it’s another to face down aggressive livestock 200yards away from you. Personally have dealt with dogs that will face down livestock when you’re at hand (drawing confidence from your presence) but will not do so as the distance from you grows. Courage/confidence can be improved with training; however, there is a significant genetic component to it. My opinion is most traits are controlled by genetics and nurture (positive or negative) enhances or suppresses their nature. ”Herding” is a genetically controlled set of traits (otherwise all breeds could be trained for working livestock); it stands to reason all other traits are genetically controlled.

The confidence to walk up into the face of a ram or a ewe with lambs, I don’t believe, is something one can fully instill in a dog through the relationship you have with the dog. This is especially true when you cannot be nearby.

Agitated bison rams car in Yellowstone looks like the “impacted car” is from FL. Their insurance agent won’t forget this claim. If they have Farmers Insurance their agent will really have something to talk about. Farmers Insurance commercial

I have seen our LGDs interfere with dogs being silly (puppies) or rash (inexperienced dogs); what the LGDs might view as harassing their sheep. The LGDs don’t interfere when our dogs are working properly. We lock up the LGDs when we’re training young/inexperienced dogs or when other people are working their dogs.

Foxes wiped out our chickens (they had the run of the farm during the day and cooped at night) during the day; in one instance 7 were killed and the fox was spotted carrying one away. I’m certain the opossum would have taken a chicken since it was hiding in the round bales where they were roosting during the day and occasionally laying. It was spotted when hunting for eggs.

Are Virginia opossums really ecological traps for ticks? Groundtruthing laboratory observations Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases Volume 12, Issue 5, September 2021, 101780 Abstract Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana) are a common synanthrope in North America, and serve as host to many species of ectoparasites. Research on captive Virginia opossums estimated that opossums eat, on average, 5500 larval ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) per week. To investigate this apparent preference exhibited by opossums for ingesting ticks, we comprehensively analyzed stomach contents of 32 Virginia opossums from central Illinois. Using a dissecting microscope, we searched the contents exhaustively for ticks and tick body parts, without sieving or pre-rinsing the stomach contents. We did not locate any ticks or tick parts in the stomach contents of Virginia opossums. We also performed a vigorous literature search for corroborating evidence of tick ingestion. Our search revealed 23 manuscripts that describe diet analyses of Virginia opossums, 19 of which were conducted on stomach or digestive tract contents and four of which were scat-based analyses. None of the studies identified ticks in their analyses of diet items. We conclude that ticks are not a preferred diet item for Virginia opossums. Considering that wildlife unconditioned to laboratory conditions may exhibit non-typical behaviors, we recommend that lab-based studies of wildlife behavior be groundtruthed with studies based in natural conditions.

The one I killed was in amongst round bales waiting for our free range chickens to root around in the bales (it’s where they hung out during the day). Our current lgd keeps them out of the field or kills them (and other predators).

Except if they are in your chicken coop killing chickens

Why do you think the Lyme vaccine is questionable? Wouldn’t the need/desire to vaccinate be dependent upon exposure to ticks and how endemic Lyme is in the tick population. http://mail.jarvm.com/articles/Vol4Iss1/Vol4Iss1WikleV4N1pp23-28.pdf

In an hour or so one of our dogs will move our small flock of sheep (~180) from their secured field to another to graze for the day.

We have been giving our dogs an Osp Lyme vaccine for at least 10 years with no adverse reactions; we’ve had between 7 and 9 dogs during that timeframe. Most vaccines have an antigen (protein) and adjuvant (chemical to stimulate a stronger immune response to the antigen). Is it better for a dog to get one dose of adjuvant with many antigens or multiple doses of adjuvant with one antigen each time? I’ve not seen studies to evaluate this (doesn’t mean there aren’t studies; I’ve just not seen them).

I have provided links to publications which indicate the mutation assessed by the genetic test is associated with CEA in certain breeds which is described as a set of retina disorders including CH and colobomas. Please provide a link or links to published studies which argue this mutation is only associated with CH in these same breeds. I’ll read those studies and then get back to this topic.

The test is for the deletion of the NHEJ1 gene (not a marker test). Are you certain that this mutation only causes CH? Or are you basing your argument on the association of this mutation with CH in certain breeds when the use of this test is described? I think you'll find genetics is more complex than the simple association you are describing. This has a good overview Genetic and phenotypic variations of inherited retinal diseases in dogs: the power of within- and across-breed studies (nih.gov) and this one describes CEA as complex The genetics of eye disorders in the dog | Canine Medicine and Genetics | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)

This site has a summary of the defects that are associated with NGEJ1 (which causes incomplete eye development). Among these defects is coloboma. https://www.ashgi.org/home-page/genetics-info/eyes/collie-eye-anomaly Coloboma and retinal detachment are listed as causes of blindness.

I think you’ll find there are many genes causally associated with ocular colobomas, among those genes is NHEJ1. This review of human genetic variants of ocular colobomas lists >40 loci causally associated with ocular colobomas. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajmg.c.31831 This article has a description of the processes involved in the development of eyes in the embryo and why there can be many genes that cause ocular colobomas https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8302742/

These came the morning of 10Feb2022 and I took this after dinner that day. Turn up the volume and you’ll be able to hear the ewe talking to her lambs

For those interested here is a link to the published study. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/12/1927/htm “We have utilized a moderately large cohort with an extensive SNP genotyping dataset to demonstrate that the heritability of BCC is between 49–61%, depending on disease prevalence, and hundreds of alleles contribute to BCC risk. We also identified multiple genomic loci associated with BCC. Together, these data suggest that BCC is a complex moderately- to highly heritable disease, where many genetic variants, coupled with environmental factors contribute to BCC risk.”

Sallie Butler has been running kelpies in NEBCA & USBCHA trials for several years.

I’ve not seen and new studies in dogs. The previously posted studies indicated dogs can be infected (from infected humans or in a small virus challenge study). The dogs in the challenge study did not shed virus (were unlikely to transmit the virus to other dogs or humans).

This study was performed at the Biosecurity Research Institute at KSU and it was definitely not a gain of function study; the virus was not manipulated to alter the virus. The animals were just exposed to the virus.

Susceptibility of sheep to experimental co-infection with the ancestral lineage of SARS-CoV-2 and its alpha variant BioRxiv preprint 17 Nov 2021 Sheep did become infected after a direct challenge of virus (Wuhan or Wuhan plus Alpha variants); however, the sheep not challenged with virus but house with the challenged sheep did not become infected. This was a very small study, only 10 sheep.

How did the 3rd paragraph start?

The cea test, as far as I know, has always been for the causative mutation. Go reread the statement the HEF put out on this test.