Animal Pests and Disease Control

Animal Pests and Disease Control

Animals fall sick, and die while in some animals production will reduce or even seize. In such cases, the farmer always faces some setbacks in his production and profits from his livestock due to this problem. Animals on the other, who are being affected also, face some pains, weakness, irritation and even dead from the pests and diseases.

5.1       Classification of Farm Animal Diseases

Farm animal diseases are classified according to the factors that cause animal diseases which include:

5.1.1   Bacterial Diseases

What are bacteria’s? Bacteria are everywhere which live in sub freezing cold temperatures and boiling hot temperatures, they cannot be seen with a naked eye unless with the use of a microscope because they are very small in size. Some of the examples of bacterial farm animal diseases include: mastitis, contagious abortion, anthrax and brucellosis.

They live up high in the sky or some live down deep below the ocean. Some bacteria are harmful but most are harmless or even helpful to the body.

Bacteria can occur in three basic shapes which are:

• Coccus (spheres)
• Bacillus (rods)
• Spirillum (spirals)

Name                                                               Basic Shape

Coccus (sphere)                                               

Bacillus (rod)                                                     (starting to divide)

Spirillum (spiral)                                                           

5.1.2   Fungal Diseases

What is a fungal disease? Fungal diseases are known as mycoses and they are generally everywhere. Fungal diseases are often caused by those fungi’s that are very common within our environment, they live outside in the soils, plants, tress, so many other indoor surfaces and some can even live on human skin. Meanwhile not all fungi’s are dangerous but some types of fungi’s can also be harmful to health. While the symptoms of fungal disease infection includes: itching, peeling, redness, burning etc. some of the fungal farm animal diseases include: ringworm and pneumonia.

Ringworm: Ringworm is a fungal disease which can infect cattle, pigs, sheep, horses and dogs while in humans, the fungal spores enters the skin through cuts and handling of infected livestock’s or equipments. Some of the symptoms of ringworm in human include:  swollen, inflamed, marks form on the hands, forearms, head and neck.

Pneumonia: pneumonia is an acute lung disease that can affect any animal with lungs including human beings, reptiles or even birds. In human beings, it can make you to become very sick. Most times it starts with symptoms like: coughing, running of high fever, nasal discharge, decreased activities (sluggishness) and have some difficulties in breathing. It usually happens for like 2 to 3 weeks and then clears off and it can also be treated at home.

Meanwhile Fungi can be very helpful in brewing beer, making bread rise, decomposing trash but they can also be harmful if they steal nutrients from another living organism. There are some forms of fungi which include: mushroom, molds and yeasts.

Some types of fungi’s that can be harmful to the health includes: Aspergillosis, Candidiasis etc.

1.    Aspergillosis

   – This fungal disease is being caused by a fungus called: Aspergillus, it usually occurs in people who their immune systems are very weak and also in people who have lung diseases, it can be gotten by breathing in of its spores from our environment.  The symptoms of Aspergillosis includes: coughing, Headache, losing of weight, Chest pain etc

2.    Candidiasis

– This is caused by yeasts which belong to the genus known as Candida. There are three main types of candidiasis infections which include:
- Thrush is known as that type of Candidiasis that develops in the mouth or throat and the symptoms of thrush candidiasis include: white patches on the tongue or other oral membranes.
- Yeast infection is the type of candidiasis that occurs where there is excess yeast more than the normal yeast in the vagina and it affects adult women.

- Invasive candidiasis is the type that can affect the heart, the bones, the brain, the blood, the eyes, and other parts of the body. 

5.1.3   Viral Diseases

What is a virus? Viruses are very tiny, simple organisms that can only be seen with the use of an electron microscope. Viruses always depend on a host to survive, grow, and reproduce. Some of the examples of viral farm diseases include: Newcastle disease, foot and mouth disease and bird flu

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)

FMD is a viral disease that affects animals like: cattle, pigs, deer, sheep and goats and it also affect other cloven-hooves ruminant animals.  the disease spread through objects that are contaminated by the virus or contact with infected animals and this occurs as they breathe in droplets containing the virus (germ) that causes the disease that were breathed out by animals that are carrying FMD. The signs of the disease are usually found on the mouth and feet of the animal. In order to control the spread of FMD, there must be restricted movements, vehicles, equipments and sanitary measures should always be observed around the environment. Vaccinations should also be done as to reduce the spread of the virus.

There are three (3) main shapes of virus and they include:

Name                                                          

Helical                                                           

Icosahedral                                                  

Complex                                                        

 

5.1.4   Protozoan Diseases

Protozoa’s are just like bacteria’s which are single-celled and they also love to live on moistures, their own method of spreading diseases is through contaminated water which makes some protozoa’s to cause intestinal infections. Some of the examples of farm animal protozoan diseases include: coccidiosis, trypanosomiasis and babesiosis.

1. Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease that affects the intestinal tract of animals, it is being caused by a protozoan called coccidian protozoa. It can affect different categories of animals like: dogs, chickens etc.  including humans and  It spreads through direct contact with infected animal’s feces. the primary symptoms of coccidiosis includes the ingestion of infected tissue diarrhea which in severe cases becomes bloody.

2. Trypanosomiasis (nagana)

Trypanosomiasis is a protozoan parasitic disease which is being caused by trypanosomes that affects vertebrate animals like cattle as well as humans. It affects its host by infecting their blood thereby causing weakness, fever, weight loss etc. It occurs in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It is also found in South Africa but to a limited extent. It affects Cattle, sheep and goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, dogs and humans. Tsetse fly is the vector that spreads the disease between livestock and wildlife meanwhile, its signs seen in animals are loss of weight, pale mucous membranes, enlarged lymph nodes, rough and dull hair coats and death. Frequent spraying and dipping of animals, use of insecticide-impregnated screens and flytraps can also help control tsetse flies.

3. Babesiosis

Babesiosis which is also known as “tick fever” is a thick borne disease which is caused by a protozoan parasite called babesia spp which affects dogs, cattle, as well as humans although uncommon meanwhile some of the major symptoms of babesiosis includes: loss of appetite, lack of energy, loss of weight, high fever etc. which leads to high mortality (death) of the infected animals

5.1.5   Nutritional-bloat

Nutritional bloat is a ruminant disease occurs when the animals do not consume the right amount of nutrient they require. It means that there some nutrients which they have deficiencies in like having deficiency in fats and carbohydrates that provides their required energy, protein which  furnish their amino acids, vitamins which serves as co-factors for enzymes and perform other functions, irons which are required for water balance, for nerve and muscle function and selected elements which are being incorporated into certain molecules synthesized by cells.

These nutrient classes can be categorized into two categories as: either macronutrients (those nutrients that are being required in large amounts) or micronutrients (those nutrients that are being required in small quantities). Examples of the macronutrients include: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber and water while the examples of micronutrients include vitamins and minerals.  

5.2                   Modes of Transmission of Farm Animal Diseases

There are many ways by which an animal can contact diseases, they transfer and get diseases through the following ways:

1.    By having contact with an infected animal.

2.    By breathing in the droplets (discharge) of infected animal.

3.    Insect vectors such as tsetse fly also carry some diseases from wild animals to the livestock’s.

4.    Livestock’s may also be infected when come in contact with wildlife animals that have the disease.

5.    By saliva droplets from infected animals.

6.    Feeds and water contamination can also contain the disease and they can get into the livestock’s when they eat and drink the contaminated feed and water.

5.3                   The Symptoms of Farm Animal Diseases

A symptom means those signs that you will have to look out for and know that an animal has a disease or is sick. Those signs include:

1.    Enlarged udder.

2.    Sores on the animal’s skin.

3.     The animal may develop high fever.

4.    The animal may have blood stains

5.    The animal may have diarrhea.

6.    Loss of weight.

7.    Loss of hair from the skin.

8.    The productivity of the animal will reduce.

9.    The animal may be having series of Abortion

10.  The diseases can even cause death of the animal.

5.4                   Effects of Diseases on Farm Animals

There are so many disadvantages and effects that our farm animals and farmers face due to diseases like:

1.    Diseases can lead to the death of the animal.

2.    Diseases can cause loss of appetite to the animal.

3.    It also causes loss of weight.

4.    It reduces the productivity of the animal.

5.    All these will then lead to shortage/loss to the farmer.

5.5                   Methods of Prevention and Control of Farm Animal Diseases

Farm animal diseases can be prevented or controlled through the following methods:

1.    By adopting good sanitation practices: keeping their feeding tools and watering cans, surroundings and environments clean and neat.

2.    By medication/immunization: by treating the infected farm animals and treating the healthy animals against the outbreak of the disease.

3.    By isolation: by removing the infected animals from the flock to avoid spreading of the diseases.

4.    By disposal: by burying or burning of the dead infected animals.

	Germs – Causing Common Diseases or Infections in Various Animal Species
Viral		Bacterial	Fungal
Humans		Humans	Humans
Influenza (flu)		Tuberculosis	Athlete's foot
Measles		Whooping cough	Candidiasis (thrush)
Rhinovirus (cold)		Strep throat	Cryptococcosis
Dogs		Dogs	Dogs
Parvovirus		Lyme disease	Blastomycosis
Distemper		Leptospirosis	Malassezia (yeast infection)
Hepatitis		Brucellosis	Histoplasmosis
Cats		Cats	Cats
Feline leukemia		Mycoplasma haemofelis, formerly Haemobartonella	Coccidioidomycosis
Panleukopenia		Plague	Ringworm
Fish		Fish	Fish
Lymphocystis		Tuberculosis	Cotton wool disease
Spring Viremia of Carp (SVC)		Vibriosis	Egg fungus
Birds		Birds	Birds
Newcastle disease		Psittacosis	Aspergillosis
Psittacine Beak & Feather		Campylobacter infections	Candidiasis
Ferrets		Ferrets	Ferrets
Aleutian disease		Helicobacter	Crytococcosis
Epizootic Catarrhal Enteritis		Clostridium perfringens	Coccidiomycosis
Reptiles		Reptiles	Reptiles
Caiman pox		Salmonella	Candidiasis
Iguana herpesvirus		Red leg disease	Aspergillus
Small Pets		Small Pets	Small Pets
Viral hemorrhagic disease		Pasteurella (snuffles)	Ringworm
Mouse pox		Enterotoxemia	Histoplasmosis