Statistical data on tetanus?

I'm planning to band lambs for the first time this year to improve pasture management and all of "the books" say that you absolutely must vaccinate the ewes against tetanus or provide anti-toxin to the lambs.  

Yet I can't find any data on the risk of tetanus.  It's supposed to be very high.  What does that mean?  

I don't want an animal to suffer unnecessarily but as my other occasional posts on here have made clear, the livestock is here to do a job.  There is scientific literature on natural immunity to tetanus (in humans) despite the common medical myth that this is impossible.  I certainly get my tetanus boosters because the risk isn't worth it.  But it might be with lambs.  Vaccinating the flock would be a huge job.  Is my probable risk losing a lamb or so every few years?  In that case it's not worth it.  Or is it losing 30 percent every year?  In that case it's definitely worth it.  I just want to see data.  We've never had a case of tetanus in the flock before and we do use ear tags, so there's some risk there.

I think it's going to be hard to find hard data for sheep-- tetanus is a reportable disease in humans, but nobody is obliged to report anything in animals.

I did find some USDA APHIS white paper type surveys about biosecurity and vaccination, reporting the percentage of farmers that are vaccinating their sheep for various things, and which kind of stock (rams, ewes, etc) they are vaccinating. Not losses, but vaccinations.

I also read that since 2018 there have been shortages of sheep vaccinations, which means people are probably not vaccinating as much. If it were me, I'd ask the vet how prevalent tetanus is in the area (maybe other farmers too?), maybe that will give you an idea of whether it's worth it or not.

This site seems to explain a lot Sheep and goat vaccines

"Do sheep need tetanus shots?
The most important vaccines given routinely to sheep and lambs in North America are those used to protect against Clostridial diseases. Specifically, the preferred vaccine is CD-T toxoid. This protects against enterotoxemia caused by Clostridium perfringens types C and D and also tetanus caused by Clostridium tetani.10 July 2020"
and
"The relatively low economic value of small ruminants places constraints upon vaccination in these species. In general, vaccination against clostridial diseases such as enterotoxemia and tetanus are most important."

I don't raise sheep, but i do raise goats.  I went the route of not vaccinating my does or the kids for about two years.  I banded all my wethers. Never had a problem with the banding or any infection after banding. No deaths from banding.   So I am not sure how important it is to keep the banded wethers from getting tetanus.  However, I have my banded wethers out on pasture with their mothers.  I don't keep them in confined area with lots of manure.  I think that makes a difference.

I did lose several kids to bloat or enterotoxemia also called overeating disease. This happened when the kids were about a month old. With goat prices and sheep prices being what they are right now, over $3 per pound live weight in my area, I can't afford to lose kids. Even if I am even selling them for meat when they hit 70 to 80 lbs.  Losing a registered doeling or buckling hurts a lot worse in the pocket. The CD and T vaccine is cheap and not hard to administer so I have gone back to vaccinating my goats.   Hope this helps and good luck with your pastured sheep.

Stats would be nice! What did you decide to do?

In our first years of shepherding we used an emasculator to castrate which is bloodless and no risk of tetanus. We vaccinate our ewes for cdt pre-lambing but not the animals that are being harvested before they are a year old. This year we banded. It was harder on the animals, for sure. I was also told afterwards by some that the passive cdt immunity isn't enough for banding. The lambs should get antitoxin too (because they are too young to vax with cdt). We'll probably go back to emasculator/burdizzo.

M Waisman wrote:Stats would be nice! What did you decide to do?

In our first years of shepherding we used an emasculator to castrate which is bloodless and no risk of tetanus. We vaccinate our ewes for cdt pre-lambing but not the animals that are being harvested before they are a year old. This year we banded. It was harder on the animals, for sure. I was also told afterwards by some that the passive cdt immunity isn't enough for banding. The lambs should get antitoxin too (because they are too young to vax with cdt). We'll probably go back to emasculator/burdizzo.

I agree that the burdizzo is easier on the animals and safer, since it is bloodless. I've had two different goat whethers that I kept. The first was banded, but when the second one came along, a few years later, my friend had a burdizzo, and did him for me. It was so quick, and he gave a little yell, and that was it. Totally fine a minute later. I'm not sure I would want to do it on my own, but I probably could if I had to. But the same with banding. I wouldn't want to mess up and do either of those wrong.

I remember the whether who got banded wandered around the pen giving occasional yells for an hour or more after the bands went on. I think it was probably super uncomfortable for quite a bit longer than that, but I think he stopped complaining after the first hour or two.