Sheep Bradzot: causative agent and signs of the disease, treatment and prevention

Bradzot disease in sheep can occur when grazing and stall keeping, at any time of the year. The disease is infectious, affects goats, sheep, proceeds rapidly and ends with the death of the animal. It is distributed throughout the world and causes significant damage to large farms and personal farmsteads. Requires emergency measures and quarantine.

History of discovery of infection

In Norwegian, "bradzot" means "sudden illness". The name fully reflects the speed of the course and spread of the disease, first described by Crabbe in 1875. A detailed study of the infection was made by the Norwegian physician Ivar Nilsson in 1888. In the Soviet Union, bradzot was identified and described in 1929 by K.P. Andreev. An outbreak affects about 20% of the livestock, with an acute course of infection, the death rate is 100%.

Pathogen

The causative agents of bradzot are anaerobic bacteria Clostridum septicum, Clostridum oedematiens. These are Gram-positive, motile rods. They are resistant to boiling, exposure to chemical reagents (40-60 minutes), and remain in the soil, silt in water bodies for years. Bradzot is characterized by hemorrhagic lesions of the abomasum and duodenum of sheep.

Fatty individuals with low mobility, regardless of gender, sheep and rams under the age of 2 years or young animals 3-8 months old get sick more often. The infection enters the body of a sheep:

• with soil in the pasture;
• when drinking from contaminated water bodies;
• with feces due to poor animal care;
• from sick animals and infected unutilized sheep carcasses.

Provoking factors are: hypothermia or overheating of the livestock, a sharp change in diet, uncontrolled use of antibiotics when raising animals.

Important: if animals graze in water meadows, they are driven out to pasture after rain or dew, the risk of infection increases.

They do not graze animals on the grass covered with hoarfrost, do not offer frozen dirty vegetables to sheep. Animals should be watered from clean flowing reservoirs. The disease appears at any time of the year, more often in autumn and spring. Summer outbreaks are triggered by drought. The epidemic can affect only young animals or manifest itself in adult animals.

Pathogenesis and symptoms

Clostridia are always present in the digestive tract of animals. Infected grass or water, the use of antibiotics by sheep, hypothermia or overheating provoke a rapid growth in the number of bacteria and the release of toxins that corrode the walls of the abomasum, poison the body of the sheep.

Bradzot is developing rapidly. Coming to the sheepfold in the morning, the owner may find dead animals that were well-fed and he althy yesterday. A sheep can fall and die within 30-40 minutes.

Signs of disease:

1. Sharp reddening of the eyes.
2. The appearance of bloody foam from the mouth, bloody discharge from the nose.
3. Diarrhea mixed with blood.
4. Animals are depressed, no appetite.
5. Sometimes there is swelling of the breast, neck and submandibular region.
6. Losing gum.
7. The gait becomes jerky.
8. Increased urination.

Animals can fall on the way to pasture.The sheep has convulsions, she dies within half an hour. Bradzot of moderate severity is characterized by an increase in temperature (40.7-41 ° C), frequent shallow breathing, and increased heart rate. Starts foaming at the mouth, belly swells.

Diagnostic methods

Signs of disease in animals can be poorly expressed, if a bradzot is suspected, an anatomical study of the fallen livestock is mandatory.

The corpses of sheep decompose quickly, sometimes the belly swells up to break the skin. A fluid is released with an admixture of blood from the nose, mouth, animal. The thoracic and abdominal regions are filled with a yellowish liquid. The trachea is filled with bloody mucus, and there is swelling and blood in the lungs. A characteristic sign of the disease is the presence of hemorrhages on the diaphragm, pleura and peritoneum. Animal corpses are disposed of completely; meat, wool or skins cannot be used.For diagnostics, tissues of the abomasum and liver are taken.

In addition, studies are being carried out for the presence of other infections with similar symptoms: anthrax, infectious enterotoxemia, piroplasmosis. Exclude aconite poisoning.

How to properly treat bradzot in sheep

With the rapid course of bradzot, they do not have time to carry out treatment. From the moment the first signs of the disease appear to the death of the animal, 2-6 hours pass. For moderate illness, cephalosporins, drugs to normalize cardiac activity, antitoxic and sedatives are used.

The sick sheep is isolated from the rest of the livestock, placed in a separate warm paddock. She needs good nutrition and access to clean drinking water.

Important: the treatment is carried out by specialists of the veterinary service. Animals are transferred to the stall content, the sheepfold is disinfected.

Prevention measures

All pastures and water bodies where outbreaks of the disease were recorded are taken into account. To prevent the disease, the entire livestock is vaccinated. The vaccine was developed in the USSR, it allows to exclude the disease of the herd with bradzot, dysentery, infectious enterotoxemia, malignant edema of sheep.

Vaccinate animals from 3 months of age. Two-stage vaccination: the first dose is administered intramuscularly at the rate of 2 milliliters of vaccine per adult sheep, 1 milliliter for lambs up to 6 months old. Re-vaccination is carried out after 20-25 days, 3 milliliters are administered to adult livestock and 1.5 milliliters to lambs. They are vaccinated 1-1.5 months before the flock is taken out to pasture.

They don't vaccinate malnourished and sick animals. During the vaccination period, sheep are not sheared or castrated. Twisted ewes are vaccinated at least 1.5 months before lambing. The vaccine is fully used after opening the vial.

Livestock is vaccinated by veterinarians with secondary or higher veterinary education. Sterile syringes are used, the injection site is preliminarily wiped with alcohol. In the event of an epidemic, revaccination of the entire livestock is carried out. After vaccination, animals may have a fever, sheep may limp for 3-5 days on the leg into which the drug was injected.

What restrictions are introduced during quarantine

When the farm is closed for quarantine, it is prohibited to sell, export animals from a disadvantaged area and move them inside the farm. Do not use milk for food, do not slaughter animals, do not cut wool.

Sheep are being transferred to stall keeping. He althy animals are re-vaccinated. The corpses of sick animals, manure, bedding are burned. Sheepfold is treated with 3% bleach solution or 5% hot sodium hydroxide solution or 5% formalin solution.Mandatory 2-fold processing with an interval of 1-1.5 hours and subsequent ventilation of the sheepfold. Quarantine is removed if bradzot has not been recorded in animals for 20 days since the last case of the disease.

With proper care and maintenance of sheep, careful selection of pastures and water bodies, it is possible to avoid outbreaks of a dangerous disease. Vaccination and conscientious work of veterinarians help to keep the livestock without loss. Compliance with quarantine measures when the disease appears helps to avoid the spread of bradzot.

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