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Clostridium in cattle is an infectious disease caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium. The disease proceeds in an acute form and often leads to the death of cattle. The causative agents of clostridiosis live in soil, water, and manure. Clostridia spores are able to exist in the gastrointestinal tract of healthy cows, without showing 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 Clostridium
The bacterium Clostridium Perfringens
Clostridium cattle is transmitted by the oral-fecal route, or through wounds on the skin of the animal. Clostridium causes tetanus, emcar, botulism, enterotoxemia and a number of other diseases. The pathogen 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, endures many disinfectants. Clostridium spore is resistant to frost and heat, because it is covered with a strong shell that protects it from the effects of the external environment.
Exciter characteristic:
- rod-shaped form;
- stained by Gram;
- forms disputes;
- releases toxins.
The bacterium releases toxins after it enters the body of cattle, affecting the gastrointestinal tract, muscle tissue, kidneys, and nervous system.
The most common type of clostridia is Cl. Perfringens, which have several types: A, B, C, D and E. Each of them causes diseases with certain clinical signs.
Clostridium is dangerous for calves and adult cattle
Type A forms a toxin of not very high activity, so the mortality of animals does not exceed 25%. Clostridia type B can produce all kinds of toxins, but they are most dangerous for newborn calves, which have a mortality rate of up to 90%. This type of lesion is characterized by hemorrhagic inflammation with ulcers. Type C is dangerous for young cattle, but sometimes affects adults.
Toxins can be difficult to identify and more research is needed. Type D differs from the rest in that it forms a weakly active toxin, which, under the influence of certain digestive tract enzymes, becomes quite dangerous, especially for calves. Type E is the causative agent of enterotoxemia. Activated by enzymes and then quickly destroyed.
Also widespread is Cl. Tetani, which is the causative agent of tetanus in cattle, and Cl. Sordellii, causing gas gangrene, edema.
Causes of clostridium in cattle
Clostridia live mainly in anoxic conditions, with the exception of some species. A favorable habitat for pathogens is soil, water, and for reproduction they require high humidity, lack of oxygen. The main causes of infection of cattle with clostridium 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 feed, which provoke enterotoxemia, botulism, bradzot, and wound, causing tetanus, emcar, edema. Infections caused by injuries, wounds occur much less often than alimentary ones, but they are distinguished by a high percentage of cattle deaths. Clostridia enter the external environment with faeces 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 entry into the body of cattle. However, in almost all cases, there is a strong intoxication of the body, a violation in the work of the gastrointestinal tract, the nervous system. As a rule, all animals suffer from convulsions, edema, diarrhea.
Considering the symptoms of clostridium in cattle in more detail, establish:
- With botulism in cattle, body temperature does not increase, exhaustion, and indomitable diarrhea are observed. The cow chews food for a long time, while the food lump does not move along the esophagus, and the drunk water flows out of the nostrils.
- With tetanus, the body temperature of cattle is kept within normal limits, convulsions are observed, muscles become hard, paralysis, and increased sweating are possible. There are also various pathologies in the digestive system. The general condition of the animal is excited.
- 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, breathing and pulse become rapid. The diseased animal dies within the next 5 days.
- Emkar is characterized by a significant increase in body temperature of cattle, lameness, unsteadiness when moving, swelling that crunch when the animals are palpated. When opening the affected area, a cloudy exudate is released. In addition, there is a decrease in appetite, breathing is difficult, the pulse quickens. The animal is weakened.
- Enterotoxemia is accompanied by a significant increase in body temperature, imbalance during movement, muscle cramps. More often the disease affects young cattle. In animals, there is a decrease in appetite, lethargy, the release of brown feces mixed with blood.
Infected cattle
Diagnostics
The diagnosis of clostridium is made on the basis of a visual examination of an infected individual of cattle, ascertaining the conditions of detention and the diet of feeding.
Additionally, laboratory diagnostic methods are carried out:
- ELISA (enzymatic immunoassay);
- cytotoxic test;
- blood test;
- analysis of vomit and feces.
Sometimes an endoscopy of the intestine is performed, which reveals plaques on the mucous membrane, characteristic of infectious colitis. In some types of diseases caused by Clostridium, pieces of affected organs or muscles, the contents of wounds, food for microbiological testing, and toxin identification are examined.
Treatment of clostridium in cattle
Therapy of any infectious diseases, including clostridiosis, should begin with the isolation of diseased cattle from the rest of the herd, and the creation of good feeding and keeping conditions for them.
Treatment for Clostridium will depend on the correct diagnosis of the disease. With botulism in the initial stages of the disease, you need to do a gastric lavage with a solution of soda. Intravenously administered saline sodium chloride 2 times a day. With a strong depletion of the body of an animal with clostridium, a 40% glucose solution is prescribed, and caffeine is used to stimulate cardiac activity. If clostridium is diagnosed early in the course of the disease, administration of antibotulinum serum will be effective.
Having identified tetanus at the initial stage, it is necessary to introduce antitoxin in a certain dose. They also use drugs that alleviate the condition of cattle – chloral hydrate, laxatives and sedatives.
To treat malignant edema in clostridium, surgery will be required to open the tumor and provide oxygen access. An open wound should be treated with hydrogen peroxide or another disinfectant. Norsulfazol, chloracid, penicillin are administered intramuscularly to cattle. Also use caffeine, isotonic sodium chloride solution, camphor serum intravenously.
Serum from clostridiosis
A good therapeutic effect in clostridiosis is the use of antitoxic serum at the initial stage of anaerobic enterotoxemia. It is combined with antibiotics, sulfa drugs. In addition to these funds prescribed therapy of the digestive system.
Since emcar develops rapidly, it is sometimes not possible to start therapy quickly. Of the drugs for cattle, tetracycline, penicillin, amoxicillin and other antibiotics are prescribed. Surgical assistance will be required to remove dead tissue, followed by washing with disinfectant solutions and installing a drain.
Preventive measures
When an emphysematous carbuncle occurs in a herd, restrictive measures are imposed. The regrouping of livestock within the farm, the import and export of cattle, the transport and driving of animals through a disadvantaged zone are prohibited.
All cows affected by Clostridium should be isolated and treated immediately. Cowsheds and adjacent areas must be disinfected, treated with manure, inventory, and checked for food for the presence of the clostridiosis pathogen in them. Other preventive measures include:
- feeding cattle only with high-quality food;
- fresh drinking water from trusted, safe sources;
- daily cleaning of the premises and their regular disinfection;
- compliance with sanitary standards during veterinary activities;
- timely disinfection of wound surfaces in cattle;
- hoof processing;
- grazing on clean soils.
In addition to these preventive measures against clostridium, cattle 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. Vaccination is subject to cattle under the age of 45 days. It is injected subcutaneously into the back third of the neck of cattle, twice with an interval of 21-28 days. Immunity from Clostridium is formed 3 weeks after the second injection of the vaccine and is valid for a year.
Conclusion
Clostridium 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, clostridium is easier to prevent than to treat. Preventive measures against this disease are based on the quality management and proper feeding of livestock, as well as timely vaccination of livestock.
