Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Ultrasound scans could help save sheep from lung cancer

Scanning sheep could help to reduce cases of an infectious lung cancer.
Scanning sheep could help to reduce cases of an infectious lung cancer.

The use of ultrasound scanning to detect small tumours in the lungs of sheep could greatly reduce cases of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA), claim researchers at the Moredun Research Institute.

OPA is an infectious lung cancer specific to sheep caused by the Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus.

The early stages cannot be clinically diagnosed. Once visible, clinical signs include difficulty breathing, weight loss and liquid dripping from the nose.

Dr Chris Cousens told a briefing that work to scan sheep for early signs of OPA was reaping rewards and farmers could now use the technology to test and cull sheep harbouring the disease.

“Generally with OPA, by the time you see the disease it’s very advanced,” she said. “But by scanning the whole flock and taking out the positives we are showing that this test can be useful.”

She said ultrasound scanning, which costs between £1 and £2 per sheep, should be carried out every six months or at least once a year.

“We have been working with farms doing ultrasound to diagnose OPA at an earlier stage than is possible from clinical signs,” said Dr Cousens.

“The results are very encouraging with a steady reduction in the number of cases of OPA seen each year.”

She said the scan will reliably detect tumours of 2cm or more in size. However, it cannot guarantee that a sheep is free from OPA as it will not detect smaller tumours.

“Some people say ‘these tups have been tested and I can guarantee they don’t have OPA’, but that’s not correct,” she added.