How to cure sheep and goats from smallpox

Citizens at the mention of smallpox hardly recall that this terrible human disease, which deserved the ominous name of "black death", had been defeated by mass vaccination by the middle of the last century. But the villagers, especially in areas of traditional sheep and wild goat hunting, are unlikely to think about people - for them, sheep and goat pox and to this day represents a significant danger to their livestock business.

Description and pathogen

A full list of symptoms will be given below, and here we confine ourselves to indicating the feverish nature of this disease for sheep (only domestic animals are sick of domestic animals) and wild goats, the main symptom of which is papular-pustular rash on the mucous membranes, accompanied by intoxication of the body and high mortality. The causative agent of smallpox is characterized by a relatively large Sheep capripoxvirus virus relative to other similar microorganisms.

For those interested in popular virology addthat its virions are oval or brick-shaped, and individual particles, the so-called Paschen bodies, can be seen (whole arrays, in pairs and alone) under a microscopic examination by staining them with silvering.

In sick sheep (goats) they are detected in the cells of the affected epithelium and inside pustules and vesicles.

Smallpox virus has a number of features:

• capable of long, 2 years or more, to persist at low temperatures, and when frozen, indefinitely for a long time;
• indoors (shepherd) lasts up to 6 months, lasts three times less in sheep wool, in fresh air (on the pasture) - for 62 days;
• within a quarter of an hour, dies due to thermal exposure if t> +53 ° C.

Epizootology

According to the epizootological information, fine-woolted sheep are the most vulnerable to the disease, and the body of the young has not had time to develop a sufficient level of immunity. But other groups of animals, although less at risk, also get sick.

Sources of infection are not limited to sick individuals, although this is certainly the main one.The disease is transmitted to healthy goats and sheep by contact also with carriers of the virus, which they are both during the incubation period, and after recovery (dried peel crusts remain virus-dangerous for several more months). From patients, the harmful microbe enters the environment along with lagging smallpox crusts and husks of the epithelium, as well as nasal mucus. In the latter case, infection often occurs through the inhaled air, but it can also occur through the penetration of the virus along with the feeds into the mucous membranes of the mouth and the pre-gastric part of the digestive system.

Another source of disease is milk, in case smallpox has affected the udder.

The carriers of infection are objects and substancescontaminated with natural excretions containing pox viruses, as well as other animals (not necessarily sheep and goats) and people in contact with patients and virus carriers.

Epizootic - the main form of the spread of smallpox in the flock (herd). Within a fortnight-month, most of the group falls ill. To prevent this from happening, and to avoid an increase in mortality, which usually ranges from 2 to 5% of the number of cases, timely measures are necessary. By the decision of the International Epizootic Bureau (OIE), smallpox of sheep and goats is included in the group of animal diseases that are rapidly spreading (group A).

Pathogenesis

Smallpox viruses that have entered the animal organism initially (after about four days) appear in the blood and parenchymal organs (liver, spleen, etc.).

Then 2-3 days of secondary viraemia (getting them through the bloodstream to the cells of the mucous membranes and epithelium).

It is there that the rapid reproduction of viruses begins, provoking sharp painful manifestations - inflammation, rapidly developing from a serous to a purulent state. Outwardly, this manifests itself in the form of exanthema - the formation of multiple papules and vesicles.

The development of smallpox pathology goes through several stages:

1. Prodromal - depressed state is replaced by febrile on the basis of lesions of the mucous membranes.
2. Roseola (red spots) appear - two days.
3. Roseola is transformed into round, conical shape, papules (knots), girdled with a red line - up to three days.
4. There is a transformation of papules into vesicles (bubbles with yellowish serous fluid) for five to six days: at this stage, the overall condition of the body gradually becomes better as the temperature decreases.
5. Three-day purulent stage - the vesicles are pustularized, pus is formed in the pustules due to a combination of leukocyte accumulations with pyogenic microorganisms.
6. Pustules dry, they are replaced by brown-colored scabs: under the scabs that last a little less than a week, a new epithelium forms - the formation of scarring from connective tissue is possible if there was a significant depth of damage.

Inside the body, pathological changes are expressed in that:

• mucosal surfaces of the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract are inflamed;
• the throat and the trachea that continues it erode and even ulcerate;
• local hemorrhages may occur on the inner integument, and in the lungs - foci of hepatitis and gangrene;
• spleen volume increases, lymph nodes increase;
• the liver takes on a clay color;
• myocardium becomes flabby.

Symptoms and course of smallpox in sheep and goats

The time frame of the incubation period is quite extensive, its duration varies from 3 days to 2 weeks.

Symptoms develop as follows:

• The eyelids swell, serous discharges appear from the eyes and nasal sinus, changing the content from mucous to purulent;
• the animal sniffles and breathes with difficulty;
• the pinkish rash spreads quickly, starting at the head, lips and eye-eyed circles,moving towards the internal parts of the limbs (both front and rear), arising, respectively, in females and males on the udder and labia, scrotum and foreskin;
• Two days later, the papules fringed with red belts are rapidly growing, while the temperature of the body begins to fall;
• after another day or three, the skin at the papules' location becomes swollen and has a dark red tint, and the papules themselves, in most cases differing in size, become paler as they develop, changing the red belt to pink, and at the same time becoming gray white or yellow tint;
• further follow the stages of vesicization and pustulization, which, with a copious number of papules, can immediately change to the formation of scabs. They, as already indicated, will disappear in a few days, leaving non-invasive connective scars in their place.

External manifestations of sheep pox are very bright, it is difficult not to notice them, but in order to identify the disease, it is advisable to imagine them in advance at least by the available photos.

There is also a light, so-called abortive form of the disease,when a few smallpoxes pass very quickly and without a trace, without being transformed in the usual manner, and the sheep are only slightly and briefly depressed, and they are slightly reeling.

Treatment

It does not sound regrettable, but there is no effective specific means for curing sick animals with smallpox - scientific veterinary science has failed to develop them.

In this regard, for sick individuals, some general conditions of treatment are provided based on recovery with the help of drugs that only weaken the effectiveness of the symptoms, as well as antibiotics that help prevent complications. So, the sheep:

• contain separately in the rooms protected from adverse weather manifestations;
• well fed, preferring to give semi-liquid food.

In cases of seriously ill animals, the owners are forced to resort to slaughter.

On a wider scale, the entire farm may be quarantined with the decision of regional authorities with the establishment of veterinary posts with the participation of the police, provided with the necessary equipment and disinfection means.

Prevention

Quarantine is also a preventive measure in relation to the spread of smallpox to other farms.

Ordinary preventive measures begin with the use of a vaccine against sheep pox to the entire population available (in specialized farms and throughout the territory, including areas directly bordering the danger zone). Flocks are vaccinated in those farms and settlements where earlier, not less than 3 years ago, the smallpox incidence was recorded and eliminated.

The content of other preventive measures is fixed in the requirements for those who keep sheep flocks. They must:

1. Prevent sheep, implements and fodder from localities and farms where smallpox was discovered on its territory.
2. For arriving sheep replenishment apply a monthly quarantine.
3. To strictly observe the legislatively established norms of the sanitary state of pens, hauls, pastures and water points, to which, like the flocks themselves, the responsible employees must be assigned.
4. To achieve regular systematic veterinary control of the state of the sheep.

To benefit from the breeding of sheep is quite capable. By spending on preventive measures, you will be able to avoid incomparable in scale losses from loss of livestock or its forced slaughter, as well as from a decrease in the productivity of livestock production.