Major contagious and non-contagious diseases of animals, their nature of symptoms and treatment are discussed below:
Contagious Diseases:
Some contagious diseases are briefly discussed here:
(i) Anthrax:
Anthrax is an acute disease having rapidly fatal course. It is the oldest disease known in the cattle. The disease is characterised by septicaemia and sudden death with the exudation of tarry blood from natural orifices of dead animals.
This disease has a world-wide distribution. Sporadic cases occur almost throughout India. However, it is more prevalent in certain hot and humid regions of the country. The causative agent of this disease is Bacillus antkracis. The organism is relatively large, rod shaped and non-motile. The animals get infection by ingestion of food and directly from animal to animal.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. Shivering fits with rise of temperature. Temperature of animal body may go up to 106° F.
ii. Rumination stops, eyes become red, extremities get cold.
iii. Difficulty in breathing.
iv. Abdominal pain and tympanites.
v. Dung is stained with blood and rectum protrudes.
vi. Bloody discharge from mouth, nostrils and rectum. The discharge is tarry in colour.
vii. Staggering gaits, convulsions and animal dies within 24 hours, if the disease is in acute form.
Treatment and Control:
The treatment is usually not possible in acute cases. Subacute cases are treated with antibiotics and antianthrax serum. Penicillin and streptomycin in large doses are recommended. Annual vaccination of the animals is recommended in the endemic areas. Alive spore vaccine prepared from a virulent strain of B. anthracis is safe for all species.
(ii) Black Quarter:
Black quarter is an infectious disease of cattle which may affect even healthy young animals, 6 months to 2 years of age. It is also called ‘black leg disease’ (since the thigh region of the cattle is called quarter).
It is rapidly falal disease caused by a bacterium Clostridium chauvoei. It is an anaerobic bacterium which grows only in the absence of oxygen. So, bacteria entering the animal body through minute punctured wounds which exclude air get favourable environment to grow. The infection usually takes place through food, water and soil contaminated with black quarter organisms.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. Swelling of the muscular portions usually the quarters, thighs, shoulder, etc.
ii. Rise in the temperature of animal body and animal becomes dull and goes off feed.
iii. Disinclination to move due to swelling. The affected muscle becomes black in colour.
iv. Pulse and respiration are accelerated.
v. The animal is not able to stand or walk i.e., deadly lame.
Treatment and Control:
Animals can be protected by suitable vaccination. The vaccine produces immunity in 10-12 days that lasts for about one year. Animals which are showing symptoms should be isolated and treatment done for those showing early symptoms. Penicillin and tetracyclines if given promptly and inoculated into the site of lesions are of value and should be given in normal therapeutic dose. Sulphathiozole and antitoxic sera are also effective.
(iii) Haemorrhagic Septicaemia:
This disease is widely prevalent in India among cattle and buffaloes. It occurs mostly in acute septicaemic form. Buffaloes are more susceptible to this disease than cattle owing to their greater liking for water and swamps.
The disease occurs generally in low lying humid areas and is often seasonal. Outbreak occurs during the periods of highest humidity such as during monsoon.
The disease is mainly caused by Pasteurella multocida. However, stress due to exhaustion because of excessive work, starvation, chilling or change from rail or road journey may also pre-dispose animals to infection. This accounts for the name ‘shipping fever’, by which the disease is known in certain countries.
Haemorrhagic septicaemica is carried on through the carriers season after season. The organisms are maintained by carriers during the inter-epidemic period. The infection may occur due to ingestion of polluted grass or water while feeding, grazing and drinking in such places.
Symptoms:
These symptoms are as follows:
i. Off feed, high temperature (105-108°F) disinclination to move with the herd, shivering, starring coat and dry hot muzzle.
ii. Dripping of saliva, pain in throat and swelling in the space between jaws, neck, fore limb and brisket.
iii. The swelling is hot, tense and painful.
iv. Colicky (stomach) pain, animal groans and strains when passing faces, which first may be hard and glazed and later on watery, containing blood and mucus shreds. Mortality is very high even 90%.
Treatment and Control:
Treatment can be effective if it is carried out in the early stages of the disease but the rapidity of the disease often prevents it. Sulphadimidine and broad spectrum antibiotics are effective. In an endemic area prophylactic vaccination should be carried out annually about a month before the onset of rains.
(iv) Mastitis:
Mastitis is a disease of udder which usually occurs in heavily milking cows and buffaloes usually after third calving when the milk secretion is at its peak. There is inflammation in the udder due to the infection with microorganisms.
The infection usually occurs due to insanitary conditions of the cattle shed or due to spreading of infection from other infected cows through the hands of the milker. This may occur in anyone quarter of the udder in more than one quarters.
Symptoms:
The first symptom is the tendency to kick while being milked in an otherwise quiet animal.
Other symptoms are as follows:
i. Very severe if the udder gets affected immediately after calving and the teats become swollen.
ii. Udder is hard and painful with a yellow serum-like fluid to start with, then flocculent material with blood and later on pus.
iii. There may be slight rise of body temperature. The animal rests her head on her chest or stretches out on the ground.
iv. The udder loses its normal shape due to swelling of the quarters and displacement of the swollen teats out of position. Milk from the affected udder should not be used for human consumption.
Treatment and Control:
The treatment of mastitis is done by antibiotics. Special preparations of antibiotics for infusion into the treats are available. The medicine after introduction into udder is allowed to spread properly by massaging the udder.
The control of mastitis depends on sanitary precautions and early detection of affected cases. Small white cloths of milk which may appear before the swelling is evidenced can be detected by a ‘strip cup’. This is a wide mouthed cup with a black platform. A black cloth tied over the cup should also be used.
Milk from the suspected quarters may be milked directly over the black surface to find out the presence of clots. Another method of testing for mastitis is by using special test papers, which are filter paper strips impregnated with indicators like bromothymol blue.
Mastitis milk is slightly alkaline in reaction when a drop of milk is poured over the paper, the colour changes to dark green.
(v) Johne’s Disease:
Johne’s disease is a serious disease of cattle and buffaloes. It constitutes a potent source of threat to the dairy industry and livestock trade in many countries. It is also known as paratuberculosis as it is produced by Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. Its insidious nature, protracted and irregular period of incubation, rather vague and indefinite symptoms in the early stage and lack of accurate methods of diagnosis defy the steps to check the indiscriminate movement of the affected animals.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. The affected animal becomes emaciated and bas persistent diarrhoea with bad smell.
ii. The faeces may often be mixed with flakes of mucous and gas bubbles and are usually passed without straining.
iii. The appetite is not impaired and there is no fever or pain, the animal has normal body temperature.
iv. The coat becomes starring and the skin leathery with the progress of the disease.
v. Anaemia becomes more marked and on edematous swelling (containing fluid) may develop in the sub-maxillary region.
Treatment and Control:
At present, there appears to be no practical and reliable method of treatment of this disease. The organism is very resistant to chemotherapeutic agents. Because of this the practical utility of treatment in clinical cases is poor.
(vi) Foot and Mouth Disease:
The foot and mouth disease is highly communicable disease affecting cloven footed animals. It is characterised by fever, formation of blisters in tile mouth, udder, tests and on the skin between toes and above the hoofs.
In India, the disease is widespread and assumes a position of importance in livestock industry.
The disease is caused by a virus called foot and mouth disease virus. It spreads by direct contact or indirectly through infected water, manure, hay and pastures. It is also conveyed by cattle attendants. Foot and mouth disease occurs in relatively mild form in India and is seldom fatal. It occurs practically all the year round.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. Rise of body temperature, dry muzzle, dullness, depression, shivering, staring coat, loss of appetite and stoppage of rumination.
ii. Slight constipation.
iii. Dribbling of saliva from tile mouth.
iv. Formation of blisters on the tongue, gums and cheeks.
v. Shaking and kicking of legs and lameness.
vi. Vesicles at the cleft of the hoof become ulcer like and may get fly blown.
vii. Vesicles may be seen on the udder and teats also.
viii. The milk yield comes down in quantity and quality, and the milk coagulates on boiling.
ix. Tendency of the hooves to get deformed and sometimes the horns of the hooves may be shed. Consequently the animal becomes permanently lame.
x. The infected animal cannot be put to hard work, especially in the sun and it gasps from breath, a condition known as ‘panting’. Panting is more severe in the cross-bred animals than in the indigenous ones.
Treatment and Control:
Clean the wounds and ulcers in the mouth, udder, teats and feet with 2% potassium permanganate lotion or alum water.
Decoction of babool bark for gargling the mouth and washing the ulcers may also be effective. Apply boric acid mixed with glycerin to ulcers in the mouth.
Foot bath with a disinfectant solution such as cresol or phenol (1 : 100) may be used. When maggots are found, custard apple leaves ground into a paste may be applied or a few drops of turpentine are let in.
(vii) Rinderpest:
Rinderpest is also known as ‘cattle plague’. It is the most serious contagious disease of cattle in the country. It is a rapidly fatal disease affecting larger number of annuals and causing enormous losses in infected herds. It affects mainly cattle and other cloven footed animals including buffaloes. Unless special precautions are taken a very large percentage of the affected annuals may die. Rinderpest is caused by an ultra-visible virus.
The virus is present in the blood corpuscles of affected animals. It is excreted through the saliva or discharges from the nose, eyes and the urine and faeces of the affected animals. Outside the body, the virus is rapidly destroyed by the sunlight and disinfectants.
Symptoms:
The incubation period of the disease is 3-7 days. After the incubation period is complete following symptoms are observed – High fever, dullness, staring coat, shivering, dry muzzle and drooping of head and ears, loss of appetite and no rumination. Milk secretion in cows stops.
Salivation, eruptions like bran particles on the inside of lips, gums, dental pad and roof of the mouth. Eyelids are swollen, mucus membranes light red and there is lachrymation and nasal discharge. Urine becomes dark coloured and scanty.
First there is constipation which lasts for 2-3 days followed by profuse diarrhoea mixed with mucus and blood with very offensive odour. The animal gets exhausted by this time and usually dies after a long period of agony.
Treatment and Control:
In earlier days anti-rinderpest serum was used on a large scale for the treatment of the clinical cases of the rinderpest. Symptomatic treatment with penicillin, streptomycin, sulphadimidine and intestinal antiseptics has no action on tile virus, but may help in tile recovery of tile less severe cases of the rinderpest.
It is beneficial to keep the animal on light diet, such as rice gruel with kaolin which act as intestinal astiguents to reduce the intestinal effusions and control diarrhoea. Advanced preventive vaccination if done with freezed dried rinderpest vaccine, gives immunity for 5 years.
The affected animals are to be segregated and the newly added animals are to be quarantined for at least 10-15 days.
Non-Contagious Diseases:
These diseases occur among the animals mostly due to management irregularities, dietetic errors or deficiency in the system or sometimes due to toxic substances. Many of the common non-contagious ailments occur on all kinds of dairy cattle irrespective of breed, age or sex, mostly due to improper care and management.
The common non-contagious diseases or ailments met with cows and buffaloes are milk fever, metritis, mammits, tympanites, diarrhoea, constipation, etc.
These diseases are briefly discussed here:
(i) Milk Fever:
Milk fever also known as parturient hypocalcaemia and parturient paresis, is a disease which has assumed considerable importance with the development of heavy milking cows. Strictly speaking, the disease is not a fever because the signs of fever such as rise in body temperature are absent.
The disease usually occurs in 5 -10 years old cows and is chiefly caused by a sudden decrease in blood calcium level. The volume of milk secretion, particularly when the udder is completely emptied soon after birth may lower the calcium from its normal level of about 10 mg to 3-8 mug per 100 mL of blood.
The production of colostrum by the animal may also bring about rapid reduction in the concentration of the blood calcium.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. The animal becomes excited and restless, starts shivering with an impression of great discomfort by lashing its tail and paddling its hind feet.
ii. The animal lies down on her brisket with the head resting on one side of shoulder; snores and moans for a while and later becomes unconscious.
iii. Eyes become dull with pupils dilated.
iv. Breathing becomes deep and slow, pulse is fast but weak, extremities get cold and the temperature falls to 3 or 4 degree below normal.
v. Dung and urine are not passed and the gas collects in the stomach.
vi. The animal loses sense, falls down with partial or complete paralysis of hind quarters and dies within 24 hours if not attended properly.
These symptoms may appear a day prior to calving or even after a month of calving though the majority of cases arise during the first 2 or 3 days of calving.
Treatment and Control:
The treatment consists of the slow injection during about 20 min, into the blood stream, of 300 mL of 20% solution of calcium borogluconate and the simultaneous injection by the subcutaneous route of 50-100 mL of the same solution. The treatment may be repeated in 3-4 h if necessary. In areas of magnesium deficiencies about 11 gm of magnesium sulphate by mouth may be administered to the animal.
(ii) Ketosis:
Ketosis in cattle is a condition occurring due to metabolic disorder. There will be an imbalance between the nutritive intake and nutrition requirement for the body.
The condition usually occurs in high producing dairy cattle. There will be low blood glucose level and depletion of glycogen reserves, of the liver. Production of ketone bodies is increased and they accumulate in the blood and urine.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. The affected animal shows decreased appetite.
ii. Milk yield is suddenly decreased.
iii. Breath of animal has peculiar sweetish smell.
iv. The urine also gets a peculiar smell, similar to that of ammonia.
v. Body weight of tile animal rapidly reduces.
Treatment and Control:
The treatment consists of tile intravenous injection of glucose or fructose. Propionic acid can also be given as sodium propionate. Glycerol or propylene glycol is satisfactory when given orally.
(iii) Diarrhoea:
Diarrhoea is more a symptom of a disease than a disease itself. It is a condition in which dung is passed out in liquid or semi-liquid form, unlike the normal dung which is solid or semisolid.
It may be caused by unwholesome feed, spoiled food, toxic food, coarse indigestible fibrous matter or feed adulterated with sand, or stones, polluted water especially after rains which may contain harmful bacteria may also cause diarrhoea.
Symptoms:
The symptoms are as follows:
i. Frequent parage of watery motions and the soiling of buttocks, thighs and tail.
ii. The animal is dull, belly tucked up with a staring coat.
Treatment and Control:
At first, to remove bacteria and other possible irritants, the animal is given one litre of castor oil emulsion or one litre of linseed oil internally.
Few hours later, mix 20 gm catechu, 40 gm chalk powder and 20 gm ginger powder. Feed this mixture with one litre of rice gruel is given to the animal. This can be repeated twice a day till the diarrhoea stops.
(iv) Constipation:
Constipation is a condition where the dung is not passed out with ease, in normal quantity of consistency and is usually a symptom seen in all conditions affecting the general health of the animal, sometimes with a rise in body temperature.
Symptoms:
The causes of constipation are numerous and some important ones are being given below:
i. Accumulation of dry and hard undigested feed in the stomach.
ii. Over eating of not easily digestible feed such as coarse fibrous roughages.
iii. Hurried eating gulping without proper chewing or rumination.
iv. Inadequate intake of drinking water.
v. Increase in body temperature.
vi. Inefficient functioning of certain internal organs as liver, intestines, etc.
Treatment and Control:
The affected animal should be given laxative diet like wet wheat bran mash, rice gruel and canji water. Supply easily digestible green fodder. Make the animal drink adequate quantities of fresh water, if necessary by adding a little jaggery or salt or both to the water.
As a first aid relief measure, use following preparation – 0.25 kg of common salt (sodium chloride), 8.25 kg of Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate), 50 gm of powdered ginger, 25 gm powdered pepper and 10 gm nux-vomica powder.
These ingredients are mixed and divided into two parts. One part is given immediately with feed and the other after a few hours. Six hours later, give half a litre of groundnut oil mixed with 0.25 L, castor oil, which when given internally, will certainly get the hardened mass out.