Brucellosis
- Brucellosis or Bang’s disease is a Bang’s bacterial disease causes high economic losses. A disease known as undulant fever, which affects human being, may be contracted from animals affected with brucellosis.
- It caused by Brucella abortus. Abortion usually occurs in the last three months of pregnancy. Infection mostly spread through consumption of infected feed and water contaminated with genital discharge of the infected dam or aborted foetus.
Symptoms
- The infected animals may abort or give birth to dead or week calf
- Cow may fail to expel the placenta after birth.
- Abortion usually takes place in the last part of the pregnancy period.
- Animals that are infected often have higher than normal temperature at calving time.
- Milk production is reduced.
- Heavily infected herds may have 50 per cent or more aborted or dead calves among first calf heifers.
- The disease may be contracted from the consumption of non-pasteurized milk produced by infected animals, and danger exists in handling newborn calves or aborted fetuses from infected herds.
Prevention and control
- Brucellosis finds its way into a herd through any of the following
- The purchase of infected or exposed animals
- Contact with a neighbor’s herd
- Exposure at livestock shows where an infected animal may be on exhibit
- Livestock trucks that handle animals and that dragged on the place by carnivorous animals such as dogs.