Sheep Scab Controls

Ovine psoroptic mange or sheep scab (also known by the descriptive names of belt, shab, tag or rubbers) is said to be one of the earliest known ectoparasitic infections. Sheep scab has been known since ancient times. It was known to Moses and has been documented by Cato, Virgil, Pleno and Columnella and (apparently) is referred to in the Bible (Leveticus XXII, 22). Although the Arabs were aware of the mite as long ago as 1174, they did not recognise it as the cause of the disease (Stockman, 1912). It was not until the early 19th Century that the mite was positively identified as the causative agent (Walz, 1809), given the name Psoroptes ovis by Hering in 1835, and its life cycle deduced in 1857 (Gerlach, 1857). P. ovis is a cosmopolitan, obligate ectoparasite occurring, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, in all the sheep rearing countries of the world.