Symptoms and treatment of salmonellosis in pigs, measures for the prevention of paratyphoid fever
When raising pigs, an important task is to organize preventive measures for the occurrence and spread of infectious diseases. One of the most dangerous infections is salmonellosis, which affects pigs, and most often piglets. To prevent infection of animals, it is important to know the main causes of the onset of the disease, its symptoms. Prevention measures are gaining in importance.
What is paratyphoid?
When the animal's body is affected by paratyphoid fever, the intestines and the lungs are the first to suffer. The disease rate is high in piglets because their immune systems are poorly developed to fight off disease. The aerobic bacterium paratyphoid Salmonella has the form of an oval rod with lateral flagella, thanks to which it moves. The incubation period in piglets after weaning age is one and a half to three weeks, in suckling babies this period is shorter.
Bacteria are highly resistant to high / low temperatures and many disinfectants. This feature creates significant difficulties in the treatment of animals and necessitates special preventive measures. When detecting and treating a disease, it must be borne in mind that bacteria retain their vital activity for about six months, even in conditions of negative temperatures and ultraviolet light.
Causes of occurrence
On prosperous farms where quality animal care is provided, sources of infection can be:
- poor-quality feed (meat and bone meal, seeded with pathogenic bacteria);
- pigeons, cats, sparrows, rodents acting as mechanical carriers of the disease;
- importation of salmonella-carrying pigs into the farm (20% of the bacterial carriers are sufficient to infect the herd).
The main disseminators of the infection are infected pigs, recovered individuals (the duration of the carrier of bacteria lasts about a year), and their excrement. Sources of paratyphoid fever for piglets are suckling sows carrying Salmonella. Moreover, the disease affects both the droppings of such sows and other piglets. Sometimes fetal infection occurs in utero.
An outbreak of the disease can occur if healthy animals are placed in pens where sick individuals were previously located, but the fences were poorly washed and disinfected. Unbalanced nutrition, lack of vitamins and microelements are among the predisposing factors for the onset of the disease in piglets.
Symptoms and forms
Clinical signs of salmonella damage to the body are determined by the course of the disease. There are three forms of paratyphoid.With an acute course, the body temperature of the piglets is 41-42 ° C. Newborns do not have a sucking reflex, older piglets refuse food. The rules of behavior are also violated: the animals try to bury themselves in the litter, because of colicky pains, the piglets lay on the chest, pulling their hind legs and stretching the front ones. Heavy breathing, diarrhea, vomiting are manifested. About half of the piglets die by 3-7 days of illness.
The subacute form of paratyphoid fever is characterized by the same clinic as the acute one, only the symptoms of the disease are manifested to a lesser extent. Sick animals breathe faster, cough, can refuse food, diarrhea alternates with constipation. There is a possibility of pneumonia. Of the infected piglets, 40% die. The disease in a chronic form lasts longer, the symptoms of infection are mild. The disease lasts 8-9 days and ends with the recovery of most of the animals.
Diagnosis of the disease
Paratyphoid fever mainly affects young animals. Pneumonia is observed in animals, necrotic and ulcerative lesions of the intestinal mucosa occur. Small brown or black crusts appear on the skin, resembling adhered dirt. Dramatic weight loss, coughing and frequent constipation are reasons for suspicion of salmonella infection in animals. To make a final diagnosis, not only the clinical picture is taken into account. Laboratory and pathological studies are being carried out.
It is important to conduct laboratory studies of feeds that are fed to both young and adult pigs.
Methods for treating paratyphoid fever in piglets
If signs of disease are found, quarantine is organized on the farm. After measuring the temperature and clinical examination, all sick piglets are isolated. Before starting antibiotic treatment, the infected animals are sampled for the culture tank. This is necessary to test the antibiotic susceptibility of Salmonella found on the farm. It is recommended to use streptomycin, chloramphenicol as a treatment. The medicine is given to piglets with milk, three times a day. The approximate duration of treatment is 4-6 days.
Advice! The animals continue to take low doses of antibiotics for 2-3 days after recovery.
A good effect is characterized by the use of immune serum in combination with salmonella bacteriophage and antibiotics. If pneumonia develops against the background of paratyphoid fever, intramuscular injections of streptomycin, penicillin are made twice a day, and chloramphenicol and biomycin are added.
Danger of illness
The onset of the disease leads to an early loss of young animals (about half of the piglets). Recovered piglets grow and develop worse in the future.
Prevention
A reliable way to prevent the onset of the disease is to vaccinate piglets aged from 10 days to one and a half months. A special polyvalent vaccine is used (against salmonellosis, diplococcal infection and pasteurellosis). Vaccination of pregnant queens is carried out 35-40 days before farrowing. Adult pigs are vaccinated every six months. Weak piglets, not gaining weight or lagging behind in development, are placed in separate pens, providing them with the best conditions for care and maintenance.
Treatment of premises is an important preventive measure. Thoroughly clean and disinfect floors, walls, feeders. Common disinfectants are caustic soda, formaldehyde, and freshly slaked lime. The pens are processed weekly. The floors in the premises should be dry, warm, convenient for disinfection.
Feeders, drinkers are cleaned of feed residues and washed after each feeding, dried. Inventory, animal care items are processed with special means.To prevent the occurrence of paratyphoid fever and its spread by rodents, deratization of the premises is carried out. Mandatory control over the work of ventilation, sewerage.
Also, appropriate conditions for keeping piglets are created in the premises: the air temperature is maintained at the level of 20-23 ° C, the humidity should be 50-65%. The diet is varied according to the age of the piglets. Self-prepared feed is supplemented with vitamin supplements.
Paratyphoid fever is a serious infectious disease. The danger lies not only in the death of animals and the reduction in livestock. The possibility of salmonellosis affecting people working on farms cannot be ruled out. It is important to consider that the source of infection can be the meat of sick pigs.
