Causes of foot and mouth disease in a cow
Most pastoralists who do not have a sufficient amount of knowledge can often mistake the usual state of the animal for a painful one. And vice versa: due to lack of knowledge, not to respond in time to the development of one or another ailment that can cause significant harm to the entire livestock. It is precisely because of the untimely appeal for specialized help that the neglect of most dangerous diseases often occurs, which can not only harm health, but also cause death.
Foot and mouth disease in a cow
Based on this, it is extremely important for every owner to have basic information about the most common types of diseases and infections that can harm livestock. For example, it is very important to have information about the danger posed by foot and mouth disease in a cow, and also to have at least a general idea of how to deal with this problem.
Determination of signs of the disease
At its core, foot and mouth disease belongs to the category of cow diseases that have a viral-infectious nature, manifested through pathological processes that can occur both in the body of domestic and in the body of wild cattle. To date, this disease has a number of identified and structured signs that appear regardless of the species of animals that are affected by the virus. The list of these signs can be distinguished:
- the presence of febrile convulsions;
- when the mucous membranes in the mouth, nipples, crevices between the hooves are affected;
- skeletal muscle damage in young cattle.
The danger lies in the fact that more than once cases of infection with the human pangolin virus have been recorded in the world, and in this case, the risk category was mainly formed by children.
Foot and mouth disease of cows is annually recorded in the vast majority of countries in the world, so you should not be completely confident in safety and ignore the basic precautionary rules. That is why the damage received by the industry as a result of the spread of the disease is summed up, and for the acquaintance of specialists and the public, figures are shown annually indicating problems with a drop in fatness, milk yield from a particular cow, a significant drop in the quality indicators of manufactured products. It is safe to say that the disease of foot and mouth disease in cows, with its massive spread, introduces significant inconveniences in natural economic activities not only in certain territories, but also in entire countries, where agriculture and animal husbandry are often a priority sector of the economy.
Features of the progression of the disease
The organism of the virus, which belongs to the category of causative agents of foot and mouth disease in cows, contains RNA. To date, 7 certificates and more than 70 varieties of viruses provoking this disease have been identified and studied.The typologies and variability that exhibit bacterial particles can also have a number of immunological features.
- Immunity of each variant of viruses that provoke cattle diseases in relation to other species and varieties.
- Foot and mouth disease is particularly resistant.
- The hair-covered surfaces of cows' skin are capable of retaining live viruses for 50 days, while in the case of feed or the soil layer, we can talk about a shelf life of almost six months.
The described signs clearly indicate the special "persistence" of the virus, which significantly complicates the treatment process. To ensure their own safety, people in contact with sick animals can process clothes with hot steam, which leads to the lightning-fast elimination of the complementary activity of viruses. In addition, a solution treating agent including caustic soda and formalin has been shown to be highly effective.
The manifestation of the first signs of foot and mouth disease in cows should be the reason not only for taking treatment measures, but also in order to protect the health of the herder.
Possibility of infection
There are many ways through which the virus is transmitted, and they are all obvious. First of all, it should be remembered that the causative agent of the virus often lives on the surface of the outer clothing of a person who has been in contact with sick animals. Taking into account that the FMD disease is able to survive even in conditions of long-term transportation, the possibility of getting it during this period is extremely high. Another very common route of transmission of this virus is through contaminated feed provided by an unscrupulous supplier or seller.
Most often, foot and mouth disease in a cow appears as a result of contact of the pathogen with a damaged area of the udder, limb or mucous membranes of the oral cavity. It is under such conditions that the disease receives the most favorable conditions for development.
When the virus leaves the area of initial reproduction, the viral cells enter the bloodstream, and together with it are transported throughout the body, affecting the organs of the immune system, blocking the necessary response from the body. In addition, a feature of the virus is its concentration in the zone of the heart muscle, as well as the muscles of the skeleton, with the subsequent introduction of changes in their work. On the basis of such an intervention, the process of deformation of the tissue fiber of the heart muscles occurs, with a negative impact on their functionality, as well as performance.
Description of the clinical picture of the disease
Foot and mouth disease as a disease has a special clinical picture. So, the incubation period of the virus rarely exceeds 1 week, after which the first symptoms begin to appear. At the same time, cases were previously recorded when the incubation period exceeded a three-week figure. At the same time, as already indicated earlier, the symptoms and signs that the disease has are always the same, and mainly are as follows:
- An increase in body temperature to indicators exceeding the mark of 40 ° C.
- The cow has a depressed mood.
- Decrease in daily milk yields shown by livestock.
- The appearance in the oral cavity, as well as on the surfaces of the tongue, in the nasal passage of bubbles, inside which there is a liquid - aphtha, while in the first vapors this liquid is transparent, and after a while it becomes cloudy. These neoplasms often burst in three days.
- The appearance of neoplasms (aft) in the interdigital spaces, crevices and corollas: after rupture, such aphthae form ulcers, together with the leaking fluid, spreading a virus that can, in the shortest possible time, infect not only the nearby animals, but also the person who takes care of the livestock.
The body of a young cow reacts to development in a slightly different way.Newborn calves rarely suffer from aphthous formation, and the clinical picture is generally similar to gastroenteritis. It is for calves that such a disease poses the greatest threat, since, based on statistics, we can talk about their extremely low survival rate. We can say with complete confidence that the degree of danger of foot and mouth disease for humans and animals is equal.
Signs indicating the presence of pathological abnormalities detected after the autopsy of the animal carcass include multiple formation of aphthae and ulcerative lesions on the mucous membranes, hemorrhagic inflammation, purulent mastitis, as well as the presence of bruises in the peritoneum and intestines. Such a disease affects most organs and systems, leaving minimal chances for the animals to recover, since in situations of neglect of the disease, treatment does not bring results.
Methods for diagnosing the disease
In order to determine the presence of a problem in time, it is necessary to carefully monitor the external signs. In this case, confirmation of the diagnosis, as well as further treatment can be carried out only on the basis of a laboratory study taken from an animal biological material. Laboratory research aims to identify and establish the type of virus that triggered the disease.
The next point after the diagnosis should be the choice of a substance, which will be used for vaccination, based on the data obtained. It is important that before the introduction of the vaccine in the animal, other diseases that have a similar nature to the pangolin are excluded, since such vaccination not only will not give results, but can also cause significant damage to health, which will make the treatment even more problematic.
So, a person who does not have sufficient experience can easily confuse foot and mouth disease with the following ailments of a microbial nature:
- ulcerative and erosive inflammation of the epithelial tissue in the digestive tract;
- viral vesicular stomatitis;
- smallpox and so on.
In order to exclude such errors, the specialist must strictly follow the instructions.
Fighting infection
An effective treatment for cow foot and mouth disease is vaccination. Today, due to the wide variety of types of viruses that provoke this disease, pharmaceutical companies do not produce medicinal therapeutic drugs that are directly aimed at destroying the virus. It is considered correct to treat the symptoms, while the fight against the pathogen is at the mercy of the immune system. At the same time, vaccinations demonstrate high efficiency, due to the timeliness of which the immune system reacts faster to the manifestation of viral activity.
Most cattle breeders give vaccinations only when all the signs of the disease are visible. This approach, although popular, has a number of significant disadvantages. First of all, there is the problem of choosing a vaccine, since in order to be effective it must contain exactly the type of virus that is in the animal's body. In addition, individual immunization cannot prevent transmission of the virus to the rest of the herd. The method that is able to give the desired protective effect is based on the simultaneous immunization of all types of cattle that live in the farmstead.
During mass manifestations of the primary symptom of foot and mouth disease in cattle, its treatment is not expected, since in this case it is appropriate to destroy all animals in order to stop the spread of the virus among others. Those representatives of the livestock who do not show signs of illness are recommended to be slaughtered, since in such a situation the meat is quite suitable for use as food, otherwise special bodies can forcibly transfer all individuals to special enterprises where animals are exterminated.
The process of treating foot and mouth disease must be characterized by efficiency and compliance with all rules and regulations. The bottom line is that the period during which a sick animal can receive treatment and heal is very short, and in some cases does not exceed a day. Recognition of the disease allows you to stop a viral infection in time, which poses a danger to all animals living in the courtyard, as well as to people who provide it with daily care.
Finally
The animal instinct does not imply an active demonstration on the part of the cattle of the signs of an illness, therefore, attentiveness is the main thing in this case. Diagnosing a problem, among other things, involves a series of procedures aimed at disinfection.
So, without fail, manure must be destroyed, as well as milk obtained from a sick cow, since viruses are likely to live on these waste products of an infected animal, at any time ready to infect a new organism with a disease that most often ends in death. Based on the foregoing, it is safe to say that effective control of foot and mouth disease largely depends on the timeliness of actions.