 I'll introduce Ian McFarlane, who's a Livestock Consultant for Rural Solutions and the coordinator of Sheep Connect. So I'll hand over to Ian and you can give us a rundown on tonight's webinar. Okay. Thanks, Philippa. Yeah. Just a quick introduction and we'll get into here from Peter Fielding, farmer from Yonkla and Colin Drangrove and Kim Perry. The issue has been quite widespread, particularly on Epp and Echela and also had reports from mid-Upper North as well. Haven't heard too much from the Mali at this stage, but estimates probably over 25,000 sheep that have been affected across all the properties, so quite a significant issue. We think we've got most of the answers tonight, but there's a biosecurity doing some testing on farms and so hopefully that will confirm what we suspect is happening this year. So I will hand it over to Dr Philippa and we'll shortly hear from Peter. Peter Fielding on the line here and Pete's a merino breeder up near Peter Barra. And I did notice that Peter was very successful at the last Outlawed Show and won the Meet Merino Champion Flays, so that's fantastic well done, Peter. So being a merino breeder, I apologize for the earlier slides, but I'll hand over to him now and he can share with us some of his experiences. Thanks, Peter. Good evening all. I'm Peter Fielding from Peter Barra in the Mid-North of South Australia. This time for the third year we planted the heap of vex that we planned to see the lambs on after weaning. So on about the 16th of the 9th, we had about 240 odd lambs, half were used and half are ram lambs. So we drafted them off and we introduced the ram lambs to the pure vex and after we put them on the vex, my son came in on the motorbike and he said, Dad, that vex is pretty low to be vincex. I said, OK, yep, and we didn't think much more of it. So that was on the 16th of the 9th, we introduced them, and then on about 16 days later on one of my inspections, I sort of noticed a couple of the rams, the suspect fly strike. So I said to my son, go and ram those rams up, there's a couple in there that are getting a bit dirty. So that was OK. He got them in and he trucks the ones that just had a couple of flies. There was only about two or three of them. And then I walked around the back of the chair and she had to have a look and I couldn't believe my eyes. I said, no, all these lambs are sick. They're all got that photosynthesis, you see, because I have noticed that before in previous years I've only ever had one or two yous come down for now then. And I have spoken to Colin a couple of years ago saying, what can we do about it? And he said there's just a bungalow thing that lives in the grass, you see. So on that day, I also rang Jack Coffey from Barra, he's a local vet down there. I explained the situation. I said, I've got 122 lambs here and a whole lot of them are just about infected with this photosynthesis. So he said, well, to make sure, show some in the back of the yurt and bring them down to me to have a look. So we went round at them up, we put five in the yurt, we shot down to Barra because only about 50 minutes away. And Jack only had one looking for a minute and he said, oh, Peter, he said, you want to rule that on trouble with these lambs, you're going to lose a lot of them. He said they're going to need a lot of tender care and they're going to try and save them. So they are actually near my sail rancid next year. So I was quite devastated and I thought, well, we've got to try and do something. And he said, well, you know, the most important thing is to get them out of the sun and try and give them a shot of anti-inflammatory. So we flew home from Barra that night, loaded up with anti-inflammatory dextrin, it was called, and I have a norsus and antibiotics. And so we got home, we ran to the keep up, put them straight in the shearing kit, kept them out of the dark and then kept them out of the sun. Sorry, no, we moved them into the shearing kit. Yeah, and we gave them three mils of dextrin and four millimetres of norsus and for the infection in the past. And also, because they had broken skin on their forehead, we found it was a good idea to give them a technus injection as well. So we gave them a gland bacteria and one oren, the one here. So we dragged them through the board and gave them all the needles and finished about a vast handle of something that night and then returned them to the, I've got a great big open head and shearing kit. So we put portable sheet yards in the middle of them to keep them out of the sun and getting plenty of fresh water with the trough and all that stuff. So, and yeah, it was only really the next morning I got up and looking already, all their faces were improving. You know, the swelling was already going down. So we maintained and kept them in there for three days. And then we decided on that night, we'd give them another round of dextrin and norsus and again. So we, after the sun went down that night, we shoot them out around the padding and put them back through the shearing kit and gave them all another round of injections, you see. And then on the next day, yeah, I'd noticed that all their appetite, I think, was really starting to improve too. They're all starting to eat and drink. And, yeah, to this day, that was on the, that was on the, yeah, on the 5th of the 10th. And, yeah, to this day, as I had a look at them this afternoon, now they're all improved out of sight and they're nearly ready to be returned to the paddock, I reckon. Well, that's, that's great news, Paida. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. And I'm sure there'll be questions that attendees will have to to ask you, so we'll keep you on the line. And now what I'll do is now, if it's OK, we'll have another poll and I'll just put it up now. And while we do that poll as well, Paida, I've got a question here about what have you done with the paddock? Yeah, on the day that we removed the paddock, we removed the sheep from the paddock. We subsequently, we sprayed top the paddock to kill the vex. And we also dropped in 200 millimetres of lamat to kill all the insects that this day, the paddock's still just sitting there idle and we're paid for each bit. And another thing I'd like to also point out, we had 122 lambs in that paddock and I'd say, yeah, 109 of them were infected with their dysphotocephalus. Right, thanks. Thanks very much, Paida. So thank you for that. I'll close that poll now. The next presenter is Colin, Dr. Colin Trengove. And I think you'd probably all know him from his vast experience and knowledge with ruminant animals. I won't go through all of his background because it is extensive and he may want to share a bit of that with you. But just to get an idea of how experienced he is and how busy he is, I noticed that he's a member of several groups. I'll let you know now, he's a member of the Australian Veterinary Association. He's Australian sheep veterinarians. He's a member of that group. He's also a member of the Australian cattle veterinarians, a member of the Grassland Society of South Australia, the Ag Institute, the Australian Association for Ruminant Nutritionists and the Australian Society of Animal Production. So I think he's quite qualified to share his knowledge with us tonight. So I'll pass over to you, Colin, and you can go from there. Thank you, Philba. You have been doing your homework right, yeah. So show my screen, see if that comes up. Can everybody see that screen? Yeah. Photosensitisation liftoff. Very good. OK, well, thank you very much. Yeah, and thank you for the opportunity to discuss this interesting disease syndrome. So photosensitisation has been well recognised for many hundreds of years, but there's a bit more to it than meets the eye. So and as this discussion tonight will reveal. OK, so I'll just move on to my first slide here. So the description of the disease. So effectively, it's a sensitisation of light coloured skin to sunlight, probably not dissimilar to sunburn in the effect. But the difference is that it's only requires a relatively short exposure to sun because there's a predisposing issue that's causing the problem. So it usually occurs in spring when plants are lush and green and growing rapidly, but it can occur in autumn and different situations, depending on what the particular feed source that's causing the problem. And as it says here, it affects sheep, cattle, horses and pigs. So I've just put a couple of photos there, one of a photo of a lamb I took many years ago back in Naracourt days, about 20 years ago, showing signs of the typical eye discharge and scabs and serum oozing from around the muzzle and also one there of a cow that I saw many years ago down near Mount Gambia, which was affected by photosensitisation with the characteristic scabs on the pale areas. The other is affected and around the any white areas where the sun really attacks the skin. OK, so clinical signs. So they develop within four or five days of exposure to the agent that causes the problem, but actually experimentally it's been shown it can develop within a number of hours once animals have the photodynamic agent that we're referring to. So I'll explain a bit more about that photodynamic agent. But effectively, it's a chemical that remains in the bloodstream and when exposed to sunlight or close to the where the blood's close to the skin surface, the sun reacts with that photodynamic agent and causes a basic destruction of the skin and effectively can cause death of the skin. So like a severe sunburn, it affects mainly white and lightly pigmented skin. So areas such as the eyes, face, muzzle, belly, escutcheon, teats, anywhere where there's very little hair cover and there's a pale colour or lack of pigmentation is susceptible to this problem and we're of the opposite. The circulation is near the skin surface, which is basically the whole body. Initially, you'll see redding and swelling of the exposed skin, somewhat similar to sunburn and other signs that can be present, presented as head shaking, restlessness, itchy skin. And this can lead on to self trauma. So animals are the biting or chewing at their skin where they can get access to it or rubbing against post fences, et cetera, because it does because of the itchiness of the nature of the syndrome. We also see drooping ears and eyelids as in the photos shine on the right and eyes and nostrils may become occluded or closed as a result of the severe swelling and so it can actually make breathing quite difficult. Serum oozes from the skin and results in crusting and matting of the hair and as the skin tends to dry out, then it will crack as Peter referred to. And so that leads it open to secondary infections, which can obviously make things much worse. And for that matter, even again, green in severe cases. Another variation of the syndrome can also result in as a result of liver damage. And so you'll also see jaundice, prostration. In other words, animals become recumbent or unable to stand. And you may see death where severe cases that are left untreated or certain situations where liver damage is involved. The consequences results in weight loss, damage to the hide and utter and teats and eyes. And obviously, mortalities can be an issue, generally more so in sheep than in other livestock. Primary photosensitisation is where the photodynamic agent, the chemical in the bloodstream, is acquired directly from the food source. So whether it's green feed or whether it's a forage or whether it's even in some medicines. So, for example, carbon tetrachloride and some other phenolthysin, some other chemicals have been recognised as being photodynamic. In other words, once they're in the bloodstream and the animals exposed to sunlight, we can get this skin damage as a result. So examples of primary photosensitisation agents say St. John's Wart is a weed that's well recognised as being associated with it. And that's got a particular chemical called hypersin, which has been recognised as the photodynamic agent that sets up the photosensitisation. But we've also seen it associated with grazing, leucine and vetch as obviously the question is in this particular scenario, but also clovers, brassicas such as rape and kale, plantain, perennial ryegrass, stalksbill or erodium species, which sometimes we know as geranium, well geranium. Japanese millet, for example, and as a more of a generic circumstance, is this issue with aphids affecting legumes. So whether that's medics or leucine or vetch or a variety of other possibilities, some of the burr, medics, et cetera. And so this illustration out of primary industries fact sheet just shows here the adult aphid. And, whoops, just go back one more. And also the nipple stages, so the, which you may see one or other in a particular case. And obviously they need to be there in numbers before we consider them to be a significant issue. There's also another type of photosensitisation referred to as secondary, and this is associated with liver disease or liver injury. And so there may be a primary toxin causing liver injury. And so the chlorophyll or the phyloarythrin, which is a metabolic product of chlorophyll, in other words, the green pigment in grass. So it's converted into phyloarythrin. And this is normally excreted out of the body if you've got a normal functioning liver. But if we have a damaged liver, and so, for example, the bile ducts are blocked. Instead of being excreted, this phyloarythrin remains in the bloodstream. And so that acts as the photodynamic agent which interacts with the sun and causes the skin lesions that we are familiar with. Can I just interrupt there for a minute? Sorry, Colin. We've got a few questions that are coming in. Initially, in your earlier slides, did any of those sheep end up losing their ears? Can do, yes, yes. So the damage can be quite severe, especially in, I guess, thin areas, such as the ears. And so those can certainly just shrivel up and drop off because the chemical reaction to the sun and the photodynamic agent will cause severe skin damage and death of that tissue. Okay, and there's another one that's come in. Were there any that didn't receive injections? Yeah, so that's a case of, well, if the animals are recognized as having the problem removed from the offending paddock or pasture, they can relatively quickly recover. So it just really comes back to the degree of damage done before the animals are retrieved or removed from the offending area. So they don't necessarily need to be treated with the various products that Peter mentioned. But if they are severely affected, well, the products will certainly help them recover more quickly. And I'll explain that a bit later on. Sure, and we've got one, says, what about swollen heads? I looked like cross-bred rams. Yeah, so I've certainly seen that seen in Rome with, for example, Japanese millet many years ago, once again, down around Naracourt. The swollen heads, effectively, you just get a lot of inflammation and fluid accumulation around the head as a result of the agent or the chemical in the blood interacting with the sun. And so it's just like a really severe sunburn. And that can resolve the time, but probably the more severe the swelling, the more likelihood you're going to get a better response by treating with corticosteroids. In other words, anti-inflammatory products. Yeah, and it might be possible. Sorry, Colin, Peter's just mentioned there that he had injected anti-inflammatory in the sheep and only penicillin were the ones that had the past and broken skin. Yes, that's right. So once again, it depends on how severe the situation is. If you do get leathery skin that's cracking, certainly a penicillin or an adiabatic cover would be a good idea to prevent secondary bacterial infection. And that'll sow a lot of pus formation, et cetera. But if it's a relatively mild case where it might only be, say, the years affected, well, you probably don't need to use the adiabatic, but more just to get him into shade. So getting him into shade is the number one, getting away from the sun and that chemical that's circulating the bloodstream will eventually pass out of the body. So if they're not getting ongoing exposure to sun, well, they should recover pretty quickly. Okay, well, I have one more and then we've got plenty of questions coming in which is fantastic. So I've had rams with severely swollen testes. Will they recover and how long may this take and what effect on sperm production? Oh, yeah, that's getting complicated. So when you've got fluid accumulation, so obviously the person, the scrotum can be exposed to sunlight like any other part of the body and not having a lot of wool cover can be quite susceptible to photosensitisation. And once again, the inflammatory reaction means you'll get fluid accumulation, especially in a dependent area like that. In other words, on the lower part of the body, fluid tends to flow to those areas. And my concern would be that it could certainly cause temporary infertility. And one of the issues would be if it's differentiating or making sure it is actually photosensitisation and not an orchidus, which is basically an infection in the scrotum or the testicle in particular. But if you get fluid accumulation there, that will certainly reduce the ability to regulate temperature of the testicles. And so semen production may be compromised and normally you'd expect any inflammatory process in the scrotum can easily render those animals infertile for a couple of months because it takes a couple of months for new semen to be developed. So if there's a temperature rise, which is not necessarily the case with photosensitisation, but if the body temperature does rise a degree or two, that could be enough to cook all the semen in the testicles. And so they may be not infertile for the next two months until they basically, well, assuming they recover from the photosensitisation quickly at stool, could be at least another two months before they'll have viable semen produced. Right, okay, well, yeah, that isn't my concern. Yeah, yeah, it certainly sounds like no and likes to cook testes. We'll get back to you now, Colin, in your presentation and we'll answer a few more questions after you're finished. Righty-o. So just going on with this secondary cause of photosensitisation. So this is where there's been liver injury and that's certainly, it's not uncommon. Examples would be poisonings due to blue-green algae, which obviously tends to be more a summertime issue when we've had thunderstorms and so dams, et cetera, streams have been contaminated with either fertilizer or fecal matter. Lupins, lupinosis, which is obviously a fungal infection in the lupin stubble in summertime. Cow-trop, which tends to be more of a summer-growing weed anyway, but that is certainly recognised as causing liver damage and so predisposing to photosensitisation. And even panic-grass, so that was a bit of a problem back in the earlier in the winter period and these photos here illustrate an example I looked at not far from New York where we see here the typical, the pink fresh tissue around the eyes and nose muzzle associated with the photosensitisation. So once again, interaction with the, in this case, the phyloarithrin, the breakdown product of the green pigment in grass, which is remained in the blood circulation, interacted with the sun and caused this photosensitising effect around the eyes and nose. And we see here that close up of the conjunctiva in the eyeball, we see here it's quite yellow, indicating jaundice, which is indicative of liver damage in this case. And then we over here just see where they open up this particular dead animal and found that it was very jaundice. In other words, the yellow pigment throughout the body, highlighting the fact that, yeah, there's obviously a severe liver damage going on here and that was associated in this case with panic-grass but we see that with, we can see it with Salvation Jane, with common heliotrape or potato weed, with cow-trop, lupinosis, blue-green algae. So there's a number of different issues where we have, I guess the primary problem is damage to the liver and then the secondary effect is animals that are grazing any green feed at the time have this phyloarithrin accumulating in the bloodstream instead of being excreted through the normal functioning liver. Okay, so we've talked about primary photosensilization, which is really what the problem is we're currently experiencing with Vetch and AFID infestation. There's a secondary issue, which is another can occur quite commonly, depending on time of the year. And then there's a third case where it's an inherited form or possibly an acquired defect where the porphyrin metabolism doesn't occur normally. And so porphyrin is, once again, that phyloarithrin chemical, which is normally excreted, metabolized and excreted, but if there's an inherited defect in the animal that can remain in the circulation. So this illustration here of the animals with all their extremities quite pink and sun, well, photosensitized, I keep wanting to say sunburn because it looks like sunburn, but that's the case where there's a defect in the porphyrin metabolism in the animal. So a bit more about AFIDs and photosensitization. So this has been a revelation to most of us, I think, in that most people were unaware of AFIDs potentially causing photosensitization. And even when I spoke to Peter the first time, I was suspecting that it was a secondary to a liver injury, but as it turns out, not the case. And so research reveals that this was first reported in horses in Germany in 1841. And interestingly enough, this is when they were preparing horses for adding to the military ranks, and they had a whole lot of gray and white horses breakdown with photosensitization. And it was noted at the time that they'd been feeding an AFID-infested vetch. And so there's been a lot more information to hand out since then. Even in the early 1900s in Australia, there was a well-recognized syndrome, especially in New South Wales, that produces called AFIS disease. And that was associated primarily with grazing burr clover or burr medic, which is another medicargo species. And it was found at the time that AFIDs that infested these particular pastures were contained a fluorescent AFIN pigment that's photodynamic, similar to hyperpericin, hyperpericin in St. John's Walk. And so it's been recognized since the early 1900s that AFIDs do have a photodynamic agent that can predispose to photosensitization. Another report from Spain in 2007, where 450 hoggits and adult sheep out of 1100 were affected, and another case where there's 150 out of 750 affected, so relatively high prevalences. They were grazing lucin at the time that was heavily infested with cowpea AFID and also with ladybirds. And what they did then, they actually did ended some trial work where they basically show the sheep close to the skin, normal sheep, and ground up the ladybirds and injected them into the skin and found that the error theme or the reddening and swelling and inflammation started to develop within about two or three hours that have been exposed to sunlight. So they concluded at the time that it was possibly more likely of the ladybirds rather than the AFIDs that were causing the problem. But, and they said more research needs to be done. Now, I think more of the more the case was the fact the ladybirds had eaten AFIDs, which had the photodynamic agent. And so it's interesting how you can draw some strange conclusions if you don't look into things too closely. But so once again, the AFIDs were the issue and it was interesting that suckling lambs were unaffected. And that just highlights the fact that the lambs weren't being exposed to the photodynamic agent, unlike their use that were obviously grazing AFID-infected pasture. And the slides down the bottom here illustrations from that particular journal where we see the typical swelling around the eyes and jaw, so quite tight skin and that would be quite painful. Anyone who's had swollen skin knows how painful that can be. And the reddening of the outer, so photo-sensitisation occurring here. And then the slide here on the right showing a heavy infestation of AFIDs in that particular stand of Lucent. Okay, so what do we differentiate? You only differentiate photosensitisation from. So other diseases which may appear similar at times. There's dermo or lumpy wool, mycotic dermatitis, where we can see these distinct lesions on the muzzle. And also because in this case it's an internal effect of this particular organism, you get a lot of serum released under the wool and so you get this very lumpy wool appearance, which is not something you'd characteristically see with photosensitisation. Plus you don't tend to get a lot of swelling around the face, you just get these distinct nodules and a bit of, and when you've got skin injury, they get knocked off. So next we see scabby mouth. So this has also been sometimes confused with photosensitisation because we do get these crusty lesions, scabs around the mouth, which can be quite nasty. And obviously debilitating for the animal makes it very difficult to eat, especially if they're on a hard feed. But characteristically these lesions or scabs are generally just around the mouth and lips and occasionally around the feet. But you don't tend to get that swelling of the ears and general swelling of the face. Cobalt efficiency sometimes shows up with this scaliness around the ears. And this is also maybe associated sometimes with a bit of liver injury. In fact it's called white liver disease. But so scaliness is usually just that scaleness around the ears and sometimes obviously animals become ill thrifty because it does impair their appetite. And so they tend to lose vigor or become ill thrifty as a result of their loss of appetite. But you don't tend to get the swelling, like we do see with photosensitisation. And a final condition here is people see from time to time where it may be associated with some poron products or some other chemical damage to the hide, which results in wool loss. And sometimes the skin can get quite leathery. And obviously open wounds develop. But that tends to have a distinct pattern associated with a particular chemical that may have been used. So it might have been a lousiside or a dipping agent which has been associated. Once again, it's caused a bit of damage to the skin and resulted in a sunburn effect. So diagnosing the condition. Generally looking at the grazing history, what time of the year it is, what's the seasonal, prevailing seasonal conditions been that might predispose to particular species causing problems? What's the feed type? How long has it gone on for? And is there a affid infestation associated with the pasture in question? We also obviously look at clinical signs and generally most diagnoses would be based purely on clinical signs. And as we've just explained, the other diseases that you may confuse it with. But the skin lesions have a distinctive appearance and distribution around all the pale, non-pigmented areas of the body that aren't covered in as heavy length of wool or hair and associated with obviously grazing susceptible species. And the final point here is a blood test. Now blood tests generally aren't very useful for a primary photosensitization. So for example, if it is, for example, an affid infestation in vetch, the blood tests are gonna come back relatively normal. But if there's any liver damage as a result in other words, the secondary photosensitization form, there will be evidence of elevated liver enzymes and they can be quite distinctive and diagnostic. There is also the opportunity to actually do a blood test looking at the photodynamic agent, but that's not generally readily available and would probably prove quite expensive. So I haven't listed that here. So it's just finishing up on treatment. And so removing the stock obviously from the offending forage or feed or paddock, reducing protein intake in the case of whether it's associated with liver damage, but with primary photosensitization where there's no liver damage, we don't need to worry about that particular aspect. And as Peter has already referred to providing shade and obviously putting him into a shed, are like what Peter has done is the ideal so they don't have any access to sunlight or otherwise a dense wooded area that they can hopefully, because they will seek shade if they get an opportunity and generally kept out of the sun for a week or so. They should be fairly well back to normal as Peter has highlighted in his experience. With animals that are more severely affected, so where there is like a shock syndrome and some toxemia and possibly infection involved, well that's where we do recommend early use of anti-histamines can be an advantage. Certainly the use of anti-inflammatories and so cortisone or dexasone, corticosteroids that generally have a medium to long-term benefit, certainly recommended and they'll reduce that swelling of every part of the body that might be swollen, whether it's the testicles or whether it's the face or head. That reduction in that inflammatory response getting rid of the fluid will certainly improve the skin healing much more quickly. Use of antibiotics where the skin has been significantly damaged, so whether there's any cracking, the skin has gone leather-like or certainly is sloughing off or has died. Obviously antibiotics are gonna be a big advantage in that circumstance. Prognosis, in other words, how quickly they recover will depend entirely on how soon they are removed from the offending forage and how quickly or how severe the damage is. Sooner you can recognize the problem and get them off the better. So my final slide here, prevention. So avoiding access to susceptible pastures species in spring. Now, obviously, in this case, aphids and cowpea aphid and vetch or any other medic for that matter is not a regular occurrence and so it's more associated probably with the dry conditions where the plants have become more susceptible or vulnerable to aphid attack and so that's a bit circumstantial. So it's not gonna be a necessary an issue from year to year. So strategic management to prevent or minimize aphid infestations and I'll allow Kim to expand on that part of it. And the other ideas, as always, should always be monitoring livestock on a regular basis, especially during that late winter, early spring period to detect and if there's any evidence of photosensitization occurring and moving them to shorter as early as science developed and Peter did also highlight the fact that obviously another consequence can be fly strike and so certainly that's another issue that needs to be kept in mind. He also mentioned the possibility of tetanus developing and so where have you've got fishes or cracks in the skin? That does open up that opportunity. So generally people would hopefully have a tetanus cover through the use of three and one or five. One is a routine anyway. So I'll finish up there. Thanks, Philippa. Thanks, Colin. We've got a few more questions that have come in. One is should you keep the wool on affected sheep until they're cured? Yeah, look, I certainly wouldn't be shearing animals that have been recently affected by photosensitization. I think the wool cover would be a good idea and to at least, I'll probably say, give them at least a couple of weeks after they've been removed from any offending pastures and when the skin's looking healthy again, then probably subject them to shearing. Also the fact that they're gonna be probably much more vulnerable to any stress for activity and shearing is certainly recognized as a stress for activity for both the sheep and the people working with them. So minimizing stress for animals that are recovering from a photosensitization would be a good idea. No, that's great. Thank you, Colin. And another one that's come in, do all aphids contain the photodynamic agent or is it just cowpea aphids? That might be one of the key points. Yeah, look, the literature suggests that it's only the cowpea aphid and literally enough those cases from out of the literature were all associated with the cowpea aphid even though it wasn't necessarily called cowpea aphid back in the 1840s or for that matter in the early 1900s. But it's the same genus and species as what we now call the cowpea aphid. Great. And perhaps Kim might be able to expand a bit more on the variety of aphids that are in the environment. Yeah, I'm sure. And we've got another one that's come in from another industry professional that says that she's said some of the issues on EP that have also been in medic pastures. So that's it. Variety A. Yeah. That's right. There's a variety of all, allucin, the bermetic, veg and obviously cowpeas. There's a whole host of different legumes which appear to be obviously affected. So I gather that the cowpea aphid is not very particular in what it tends to infest. But it does, it would appear that some perhaps crops that are under stress are obviously the most likely to be attacked by the aphid. And so whether that's a moisture stress or a nutritional stress, that might be a better one for agronomists to answer. And this one might sort of lead in with that one a bit too. Is there a maximum temperature of the cowpea aphids as in with hot weather coming? I know that certainly once again, the literature suggested there where you have a significant rainfall that tends to remove them as a pest. But in terms of sensitivity to hot weather, I'm not so sure that might be something that Kim could answer. Okay, and this one's probably more directed at you too. That this attendee is a narrow court person who's noticed some cattle grazing on loosened stands, developing science. So yeah, I guess that's the thing is it's, yep, able to be in loosened as well. And so what are your thoughts on that one, Colin? Yeah, certainly, as I said at the start, the pigs, cattle, horses, sheep are all susceptible and probably for that matter goats and alpacas. And I would suspect it just comes back to dose dependence. So if you've got some insect damage occurring in loosened and cattle are eating enough of it, I imagine the same issue applies. And when I say insect damage, I should specify this cowpea food because it's got this particular chemical in its makeup. Potentially if they're consumed in large enough numbers, it'll cause problems. Yeah, great. And I'll have one more before I hand over to Kim. How many aphids do the sheep need to eat to have issues? I love the piece of the street. Yeah, look, I read the Sadi or Purser fact sheet on cowpea food and it listed there as some of the thresholds for when you should look at treatment and perhaps this is better for Peter to answer. But I think for example, in some crops, it said if you've got a third of the heads or the flowers affected and you've got more than 30 aphids on a flower, then potentially there's an issue there that needs to be dealt with. But a lot of the species we talked about and Vetch being one of them didn't have a threshold listed. So yeah, it is a bit of a case of how long is a piece of string and it's a version to risk. If you're seeing problems in the livestock, well, it's probably worth dealing with them. But before that, it's hard to say. Yeah, no, fine. Good, thank you. Well, with that, I'll just put up our one more poll and just so we can shed some light on where people are seeing these issues. So I'd better throw it back to you, wouldn't I? Yes, please. Have you got the screen back? No. Change presenter. I'll just see if I can override you. No, it should be. Yeah, no, it's good. I'm good. Thank you very much. So we'll go into one more poll which launch now. So if you could, yeah, have a look at that and answer appropriately. Great. I think we've got just about all of those votes in now. Just leave it up for a little minute while I introduce Kim anyway. So Kim Perry is entomologist from Saadi from PESA and he's actually part of the research team of scientists that are integrating pest management with biosecurity programs, specifically for the ag sectors. So he is also part of the group that provides the pest fact bulletins which a lot of you probably subscribe to. So I'll hand over to Kim and he can shed some light on things from his point of view. Thanks, Kim. All right, thank you, Phillipa. And thanks for the opportunity. I'm not actually seeing the slides on my screen. Oh, here we go. Excellent. So I have to say, this is a new issue to me and certainly a lot of my entomologist colleagues we haven't really dealt with an issue with livestock before. So in terms of the livestock impacts, certainly this is a learning experience for us but hopefully we can provide some information around control. So Phillipa, do I have access to my own slides or are you working those for me? I can sort those for you. Right, let's go. Yes, we've got a bit too carried away. There we go. Okay, so as Peter's, sorry, Colin's mentioned, the cowpea aphid is the source of the concern here. There are around four or five different pest aphids that we have in our cropping systems and in the legume crops in particular, cowpea aphid is certainly probably the most abundant aphid. We also see blue-green aphid and PA aphid attacking crops but cowpea aphid are pretty easy to identify there. They're the only black aphid you'll find on your pulse crops. Now it's, in terms of their preferences for environmental conditions, the cowpea aphid is probably the one that does best under warmer conditions and in the autumn, it's often the aphid that you'll see first, colonizing your vetch and other legume crops. So there are continuously breeding species and so they won't go into dipores but typically their populations will crash over summer because the host plants dry off and the aphids tend to disperse across the landscape looking for non-cropped legume hosts and so they generally survive in low numbers over the summer and you'll start the seed and colonizing crops and pastures typically in autumn and as I mentioned, the cowpea aphid is usually the first one you'll see. Now we certainly had a really, really dry start at the beginning of this season and it's possible that those conditions were particularly suitable for this aphid and it's likely one of the reasons we've got such high numbers this spring. Now I've had some phone calls about the cowpea aphid over the last couple of weeks, unsurprisingly and as I said, as entomologists, we've had very little experience with impacts on livestock and don't understand the cause of it. So I was talking to a couple of vets within Perza and one of the photographs I got sent by a producer was, he noticed that there was a resin underneath the plants which had a bit of a black film on it and I took a look and I thought, I don't know what that is, that's sooty mould. So what happens is the aphids will secrete a honeydew solution and if there are high densities sooty mould can then grow on the honeydew residue and not knowing much about livestock impacts, I did a little bit of quick internet research and discovered that certain fungi and fungal toxins can have impacts on stock. And so I wondered if potentially there are some fungi within the sooty mould produced as a secondary effect of aphid infestation. So as a result of that, one of the vets I was talking to Jeremy Rogers has arranged to get some samples of the sooty mould analyzed to see if there are potentially some mycotoxins involved. So that'll have to play out and we'll see what happens. Now in terms of control of the aphid this season, Philippa, if you could just change the slide. It's not very complicated. Essentially, there are, in fact, go to the next slide. Please, Philippa. It's basically down to a choice of insecticides and the options are actually fairly limited. I spent a number of hours today screening through various products, reading insecticide labels. It's quite difficult to find a product registered for cowpea aphid in vetch. Now, so what I've done here, in South Australia, the legislation allows us, or growers, to use an insecticide in a crop as long as it's registered for an insect pest in that crop. So, essentially, there are no insecticides registered specifically for cowpea aphid in vetch or medic. So I've listed the ones here that are likely to work against the aphids and are able to be used in those crops. So, looking at medic crops, we have pyrimocarb, which is the insecticide, and example products include aphidex and pyrimor, and there are some others. And you'll see that there are rates recommended there. Typically, pyrimocarb needs to be used under warmer conditions. Now, pyrimocarb is probably the first choice, although it's not the cheapest insecticide, because it is specific to aphids. It won't kill natural enemies. So in crops, there are a lot of predatory and parasitic insects, which will attack aphids and reduce their populations, as I'll talk about in a minute. So where possible, keeping those around is a good thing because they provide free control. All of the other insecticides listed there are essentially very broad spectrum. So your group 1Bs are all your organophosphates and your group 3As are all your synthetic pyrethroids, and those chemistries will essentially contact chemistries. They will kill aphids. They'll also kill everything else there, including natural enemies. So that's fine. We're obviously in a fairly unusual situation where we do need to achieve good control and quickly. So what has to be done has to be done. So I'm not a chemical reseller per se, so I would certainly recommend talking to chemical resellers and taking their advice on products. Certainly, this is my attempt to give everyone a start on the information, but certainly check it yourself. Now, Phil, if you could flick back to the previous slide. So I'll reiterate that it's very important to read the product labels carefully. Aphids are a tricky insect because what they do is inject their mouth parts into the plant and essentially feed on the flounder. They occur in high densities and can occur underneath leaves. And so it's very important to achieve good spray coverage, and we'd recommend using at least 80 to 120 litres of water with probably medium droplet sizes. Now, because we're talking grazing, we need to be very mindful of withholding periods around grazing, particularly if you're looking to export your sheep. So again, read the product labels carefully. The SafeMeet website is a pretty good resource. I rang them up about this issue today. They put me onto the APVMA. Phil, if you could just flick to the next slide. And the APVMA have told me that essentially your export slaughter intervals and export grazing intervals should be on the product labels if there are any relevant to those chemistries. So again, check the labels very carefully and you should be right. All right, and the final comments I'll make on AFID control is that typically as you approach late spring and crops start to dry off, AFID populations will certainly decline. They rely on actively growing plants for population growth and as soon as the crops become unsuitable, AFIDs have a habit of disappearing very, very rapidly. So you may need to spray, but it's also worth having a look at the AFID population. If you don't see, or if you do see lots and lots of little, tiny little nymph AFIDs there, it suggests that the population may still be expanding. But if you're only seeing hardly any small ones and mostly big ones, it's an indication that the population may be stable or about to crash. And also keep an eye out for things like lady beetles and other predators. Once you start seeing lots of those, it's usually not very long before AFIDs will disappear. Thanks Kim, I've got some questions coming, sorry, questions coming in for you. Yeah, no, I'm pretty much happy to take questions, yeah. Okay, so we've got, do the sheep ingest the AFIDs as a whole bug or do they ingest a secretion from the AFIDs that contains the photosensitive agent? Sorry, can you repeat that, Philippine? Do the sheep ingest the AFIDs as a whole bug or do they ingest a secretion from the AFIDs that contains the photosensitive agent? I would be the whole AFID. If they're eating the plants, they'd be eating the AFIDs. But I have to say, I know nothing about the photosensitive, photo-dynamic agent with AFIDs. But certainly I would suspect the AFIDs themselves have been consumed. Okay. I've got a comment here from Peter, Peter commented that lemat is also registered. I've checked the registrations. The registrations for lemat, omethylate, are actually becoming more restricted and it's now only registered as a border treatment for Redleague and Earthmite and not in South Australia. So New South Wales and Western Australia registered in SA. I know people still have omethylate on hand. I, as a government representative, I can't recommend it to be used. Great. All right. Thank you. Well, I'm very aware of the fact that we've actually run over time, but it's, yeah, so interesting. It's easy to do. Look, thank you very much, all of you, for your attendance and a special thank you to our guest speakers. So if, what will happen now is that we'll have a survey just so you can let us know whether you think this was informative or not and so we can head in the right direction for next time. And you'll also receive an email with a link to the recording and it will also have all the slide shows and that sort of thing too. So you can all look back over it and check on the vast amounts of information that we've just received. So thanks again and hopefully you'll join into our next webinar. Thanks very much.