Fróðskaparrit - 31.12.2000, Page 172

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PARASITES IN SHEEP IN THE FAROE ISLANDS
Introduction
The main purpose of this project was to de-
termine which parasites are present in the
sheep in the Faroe Islands. Furthermore, an
attempt was made to estimate the preva-
lence of these parasites, and to estimate the
possible influence on the health of the
sheep. There is very little work done on
this topic. In 1919, the official veterinarian
in the Faroe Islands was supposed to study
the nature of the liver fluke and other para-
sitic diseases, especially scabies, and abo-
masal and lung strongylosis in sheep.
However, it has not been possible to find
anything in writing demonstrating the re-
sults of this investigation. In 1927-1928, a
project was set up to estimate the preva-
lence of Fasciola hepatica, and in 1929 re-
search was conducted on Lymnea truncatu-
la, the intermediate host of Fasciola hepat-
ica (Liitzen and Bovien, 1934). Melopha-
gus ovinus and Trichodectes sphaero-
cephalus are mentioned as being well
known parasites of sheep in the Faroe Is-
lands (Jensen et al„ 1928-1971).
Sheep (Ovis aries) are present on all the
islands of the Faroe Islands. Other domes-
tic mammals include cattle (Bos taurus),
horses (Equus caballus), dogs (Canis fa-
miliaris), and cats (Felis domesticus). The
blue hare (Lepus timidus), the western
house mouse (Mus domesticus), and the
brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) are the only
wild, land mammals in the islands. (Bloch,
1999)
History
The Faroe Islands consist of 18 islands sep-
arated by narrow straits, and are situated at
62°N, 7°W in the North Atlantic. The total
area is 1.399 km2, and the highest peaks of
the islands reach from 370 m to nearly 890
m.
It seems that the Faroese sheep are of
mixed origin. In Liber de Mensura Orbis
Terrae (Dicuil, 825) the author describes a
set of small islands north of Britain, filled
with countless sheep. It is believed that
these islands are the Faroe Islands, and that
Irish monks brought these sheep from Ire-
land to the Faroe Islands. The Norse
Vikings settled in the Faroe Islands in the
beginning of the 9th century and brought
with them sheep from Norway.
Svabo (1781-1782) mentions that some
time prior to 1615, due to a very harsh win-
ter, there was a great loss of sheep (Svarta
felli), that nearly eradicated the animals in
the Faroe Islands. To compensate for this
great loss, sheep were imported from Ice-
land to the northern islands, and from Shet-
land and Orkney Islands to the southern is-
lands.
Effersøe (1886) reports that over a peri-
od of forty years, from 1846 to 1886, sheep
were imported numerous times to the
Faroes. The origin of the imported sheep is
not stated. In the 1950s, it is reported
(Bjørk, 1984) that físhermen illegally im-
ported sheep from Iceland to the Faroe Is-
lands. In 1961, Scottish Blackface sheep
were imported from Scotland. It is be-
lieved that the chronic progressive degener-
ative central nervous system disease,
scrapie, which is now endemic, was
brought to the Faroe Islands with these
sheep.
Bearing in mind the mixed origin of