01-11-2018, 08:20 AM
Check your goats' ears Mike. They probably already have tattoos from the breeder and should not be tattooed again. Swab the ears with alcohol, go into a shaded area, and shine a flashlight through the back of each ear to look for tattoos. When it comes to Scrapie, every breeder should be tattooing or tagging their goats' ears. Scrapie is spread through placental fluid, so herd of origin is what the USDA is actually looking for in a Scrapie outbreak. Don't tattoo unless you know your goats don't already have them because tattooing over the original marks will make all of numbers unreadable.