Role for students in surveillance

WE would like to draw colleagues' attention to our investigations into lambing in UK flocks with the help of undergraduate BVetMed students during their lambing placements. A pilot study for collecting data on lambing performance by vet students during their placements was initiated by the then VLA veterinary surveillance centre at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in 2004. Topical amendments this year were additional questions referring to the perceived presence or absence of Schmallenberg virus (SBV) on the farms and the number of affected lambs. Vet students spend approximately two weeks lambing in sheep flocks all over the UK during their first two years of study. Therefore, there is access to a large number of flocks – for example, data from 262 flocks on 177 farms were entered in 2012. Many of these farms had little, if any, veterinary presence on farm …