Exotic Diseases

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Species Infected

primarily a disease of cattle and buffalo

Clinical Signs

• sudden onset of fever
• profuse salivation
• submucosal petechiation
• severe depression
• hot painful swellings throat, dewlap, brisket or perineum
• dyspnoea - tracheal obstruction
• recumbency
• shock, hypotension
• death in 24 hr
• mortality up to 100%

Lesions

• generalised petechiae especially under serosa
• oedema of glottis and peritracheal tissues
• pulmonary oedema, thickening of interlobular septa; may get a lobar consolidation
• subepicardial haemorrhages
• variable gastrointestinal congestion
• no splenomegaly

Aetiology

• Pasteurella multocida (Type 6 or B)
• found in respiratory tract, pharynx of healthy animals
• does not survive for long outside animal (<24 hr)

Epidemiology

• Southern Europe, Russia, Africa, South East Africa, Southern Asia
• role of carrier animal important where organism persists in tonsils and nasopharyngeal lymphoid tissue
• stress activates disease
• exhaustion from heavy work
• wet chilly conditions
• disease then spreads by ingestion of contaminated foodstuff or by direct contact
• early stages of disease
• large numbers of organisms excreted in saliva

Differential Diagnoses

     1.  anthrax
     2.  rinderpest
     3.  blackleg
     4.  bracken poisoning
     5.  arsenical poisoning
     6.  acute leptospirosis