Within the live export industry infectious ovine keratoconjunctivitis (IOK) remains an ongoing challenge.  With increasing scrutiny on the health and welfare of animals within the industry it is important to address persistent issues.  With an estimated 0.5% of sheep rejected from the export trade annually and additional costs related to holding sheep back from shipments for treatment, this work was undertaken to determine a treatment that was effective and easily administered to the numbers of sheep involved.  

As IOK is a progressive disease it is important to establish the benefits of treating cases at different stages of the disease to ensure the best outcome for the sheep.  IOK is a multifactorial disease, in addition to the bacterial agents involved a number of environmental factors play a role in the development of disease.  Attempts were made to identify some of these factors with the hope of finding ways to reduce them.

This report investigates the most effective treatments for Infectious ovine keratoconjunctivitis (IOK) or Pink Eye. A number of experiments were conducted to determine the most effective treatment for sheep with differing grades of IOK infection. Treatments that were tested included Oxytetracycline (OTC) delivered in-water, in-feed or by intramuscular injection.