Content
Clostridiosis in cattle is an infectious disease caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium. The disease is acute and often leads to the death of cattle. The causative agents of clostridiosis live in soil, water, and manure. Clostridial spores are able to exist in the gastrointestinal tract of healthy cows without manifesting themselves for a long time. The bacterium that provokes clostridiosis is divided into 2 main types: causing mechanical damage or toxic effects on cattle.
What is Clostridiosis
Clostridium Perfringens bacteria
Bovine clostridiosis is transmitted by the oral-fecal route, or through wounds on the skin of the animal. Clostridia cause tetanus, emcar, botulism, enterotoxemia, and a number of other diseases. The causative agent is resistant to negative manifestations of the external environment and retains the ability to reproduce in the absence of oxygen, high or low air temperature, humidity, and tolerates many disinfectants. The clostridium spore is resistant to frost and heat, since it is covered with a strong shell that protects it from the external environment.
Pathogen characteristics:
- rod-shaped form;
- Gram stained;
- forms spores;
- releases toxins.
The bacterium releases toxins after entering the body of cattle, affecting the gastrointestinal tract, muscle tissue, kidneys, and the nervous system.
The most common type of clostridia is Cl. Perfringens, which are of several types: A, B, C, D, and E. Each of them causes diseases with certain clinical signs.
Clostridiosis is dangerous for calves and for adult cattle
Type A produces a toxin of not very high activity, so the mortality rate of animals does not exceed 25%. Clostridia type B can release all types of toxins, but they are most dangerous for newborn calves, whose mortality reaches 90%. For lesions of this type, hemorrhagic inflammation with ulcers is characteristic. Type C is dangerous for young cattle, but sometimes also affects adults.
Identifying toxins can be difficult and more research is required. Type D differs from the others in that it forms a weakly active toxin, which, under the influence of certain enzymes of the digestive tract, becomes quite dangerous, especially for calves. Type E is the causative agent of enterotoxemia. It is activated by enzymes and further rapidly degrades.
Cl is also widespread. Tetani, which causes tetanus in cattle, and Cl. Sordellii causing gas gangrene, edema.
Causes of clostridiosis in cattle
Clostridia live mainly in anoxic conditions, with the exception of some species. The favorable habitat of pathogens is soil, water, and for reproduction they require high humidity, lack of oxygen. The main causes of clostridiosis in cattle are:
- poor quality feed;
- infected soil and water in grazing areas and in the barn;
- unsanitary conditions for keeping animals;
- high humidity.
Causative agents of clostridiosis
Bacteria are divided according to the method of penetration of the pathogen into the body of cattle into fodder, which provoke enterotoxemia, botulism, bradzot, and wound, causing tetanus, emkar, edema. Infections caused by trauma, wounds occur much less often than alimentary ones, but they have a high percentage of cattle mortality. Clostridia enter the external environment with feces and other secretions of infected animals.
Symptoms of the disease
Clinical manifestations of clostridiosis directly depend on the type of pathogen and the method of ingestion of cattle. However, in almost all cases, there is a strong intoxication of the body, a disruption in the work of the gastrointestinal tract, the nervous system. As a rule, all animals suffer from seizures, edema, diarrhea.
Considering the symptoms of clostridiosis in cattle in more detail, they establish:
- With botulism in cattle, the body temperature does not rise, exhaustion, indomitable diarrhea is observed. The cow chews the feed for a long time, while the food lump does not move along the esophagus, and the water drunk flows out of the nostrils.
- With tetanus, the body temperature of cattle is kept within normal limits, convulsions are observed, the muscles become hard, paralysis, increased sweating are possible. Also, various pathologies appear in the digestive system. The general state of the animal is agitated.
- Malignant edema of cattle is characterized by the accumulation of exudate in the subcutaneous tissue, which leads to edema. With this pathology, the general condition of the individual is depressed, appetite is reduced, respiration and pulse become speeded up. The sick animal dies in the next 5 days.
- Emkar is characterized by a significant increase in body temperature of cattle, lameness, unsteadiness when moving, swelling that crunches when palpated by animals. When the affected area is opened, a cloudy exudate is released. In addition, there is a decrease in appetite, breathing is difficult, and the pulse becomes more frequent. The animal is weakened.
- Enterotoxemia is accompanied by a significant increase in body temperature, imbalance during movement, and muscle cramps. Young cattle are most often affected by the disease. In animals, there is a decrease in appetite, lethargy, and the release of brown feces mixed with blood.
Infected cattle
Diagnostics
The diagnosis of clostridiosis is made on the basis of a visual examination of an infected cattle, clarification of the conditions of keeping and the diet of feeding.
Additionally, laboratory diagnostic methods are carried out:
- ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay);
- cytotoxic test;
- blood test;
- analysis of vomit and feces.
Sometimes an endoscopy of the intestine is done to look for plaque on the mucous membrane that is characteristic of infectious colitis. In some types of diseases caused by Clostridia, pieces of affected organs or muscles, the contents of wounds, food for a microbiological test, and toxin identification are examined.
Treatment of clostridiosis in cattle
Therapy of any infectious diseases, including clostridiosis, should begin with isolating diseased cattle from the rest of the herd, and creating good conditions for feeding and keeping them.
Treatment for Clostridiosis will depend on the correct diagnosis of the disease. With botulism in the initial stages of the disease, you need to wash the stomach with a solution of soda. Saline solution of sodium chloride is injected intravenously 2 times a day. With severe depletion of the body of an animal with clostridiosis, a 40% glucose solution is prescribed, and caffeine is used to stimulate cardiac activity. If the diagnosis of clostridiosis is made at an early stage of the disease, the administration of anti-botulinum serum will be effective.
Having detected tetanus at the initial stage, it is necessary to introduce antitoxin in a certain dose. Also used drugs that alleviate the condition of cattle - chloral hydrate, laxatives and sedatives.
To treat malignant edema in clostridiosis, surgery will be required to open the tumor and provide oxygen. An open wound should be treated with hydrogen peroxide or other disinfectant. Intramuscularly, cattle is injected with norsulfazole, chloroacid, penicillin. Also use caffeine, isotonic sodium chloride solution, camphor serum intravenously.
Serum for clostridiosis
A good therapeutic effect in clostridiosis is provided by the use of antitoxic serum at the initial stage of anaerobic enterotoxemia. It is combined with antibiotics, sulfa drugs. In addition to these drugs, therapy for the digestive system is prescribed.
Because emkar develops rapidly, it is sometimes impossible to start therapy quickly. Of the cattle drugs, tetracycline, penicillin, amoxicillin and other antibiotics are prescribed. Surgical assistance will be required to remove dead tissue, followed by rinsing with disinfectant solutions and installing drainage.
Preventive actions
If there are cases of emphysematous carbuncle in the herd, restrictive measures are imposed. Regrouping of livestock within the farm, import and export of cattle, transport and drive of animals through a disadvantaged zone are prohibited.
All cows with clostridiosis should be isolated and treated immediately. Cowsheds and adjacent areas must be disinfected, manure, inventory must be treated, feed must be checked for the clostridiosis pathogen in them. The rest of the measures for the prevention of pathology include:
- feeding cattle only with quality food;
- fresh drinking water from trusted, safe sources;
- daily cleaning of premises and their regular disinfection;
- compliance with sanitary standards during veterinary activities;
- timely disinfection of wound surfaces in cattle;
- hoof processing;
- grazing livestock on clean soils.
In addition to these preventive measures against clostridiosis, the cattle population should be vaccinated on time. The drug is made from some strains of bacteria with the addition of aluminum oxide hydrate. It is a gray solution. Cattle up to 45 days of age must be vaccinated. It is injected subcutaneously into the back third of the neck of the cattle, twice with an interval of 21-28 days. Immunity against clostridiosis is formed 3 weeks after the second vaccine administration and lasts for a year.
Conclusion
Clostridiosis in cattle is a complex infectious disease caused by spore-forming bacteria. Diseases caused by clostridia are amenable to drug treatment, but they must be detected and treated in time. Like other infectious diseases, clostridiosis is easier to prevent than to cure. Preventive measures against this disease are based on quality maintenance and competent feeding of livestock, as well as timely vaccination of the livestock.
