home Endocrinology What is cowpox, symptoms of the disease and methods of treatment. Prevention and treatment of smallpox in cows

What is cowpox, symptoms of the disease and methods of treatment. Prevention and treatment of smallpox in cows

Cowpox (Variola vaccinia) is a highly contagious disease with acute course. It occurs after infection of a large organism cattle virus, and is characterized by the onset of a febrile state, the appearance of a rash (nodules, papules and vesicles) in the area of the udder and nipples.

Causes of the disease

The causative agents of cowpox are Coworthopoxvirus and Vaccina orthopoxvirus. These two types of virus have different properties, but on morphological characteristics they are absolutely the same. These viruses pose a great threat to many living organisms, especially cows. In addition, they can cause illness in humans.

The sources of the smallpox pathogen are sick individuals and carriers of viruses, releasing it during external environment along with discharge from the nasal and oral cavities. Or, by accidental contact of unprotected skin or mucous membranes with crusts from smallpox-affected areas of a sick animal.

Typical carriers are rodents and many insects that feed on blood. Availability of any mechanical damage skin, even microtrauma and a crack in the udder, greatly increases the animal’s chances of getting sick. The virus easily enters the body through mucous membranes. To the group increased risk, regarding the occurrence of smallpox, include all animals with weak body resistance. Dysfunctions of metabolic processes, vitamin deficiency in the body, during the recovery period after calving or a recent illness.

A huge threat cowpox represents for small calves whose protective functions body.

Symptoms

The first manifestations of the disease affect general state cows: she loses her appetite, behaves lethargically and inactively. In many cows, smallpox begins to appear on the udder; round blisters with clear contours and a pronounced center become noticeable.

If the cow's nipples are swollen and covered with black growths with obvious traces of hemorrhages in the center, this is obvious signs smallpox (photo below). After just a few days, these lesions merge into one blue-black spot, which cracks and becomes covered with crusts, which further aggravates the pain syndrome that is already troubling the cow.

A virus that infects a cow seriously injures the udder and teats, causing the animal unbearable pain. Against this background, she experiences hyperthermia and a feverish state. The cow is forced to take a position that at least slightly alleviates her condition (spreading her hind legs). Normal movements are a huge challenge for her, which is why smallpox can be suspected based on changes in the cow’s behavior.

Diagnostics

The final diagnosis is made on the basis of the obtained symptomatic data. A significant role is played by the autopsy of the deceased cow, and the results of laboratory tests of samples taken from sick animals.

If a cow has mild symptoms that make accurate diagnosis difficult, specialists conduct a Paul biological test using laboratory rabbits. To carry out such an analysis, the experimental animal is given anesthesia, and the doctor makes a small incision in its cornea, followed by application of a suspension prepared from materials from the test cow. If the cause of smallpox was the Vaccinia virus, then in a few days the spots and dots typical of the disease will appear in the incised area of the rabbit's eye (clearly visible even to the naked eye).

What a farmer should do when signs of smallpox are detected

The first step is to call a veterinarian who must examine the sick cow. Only a specialist will be able to accurately determine correct diagnosis, and will appoint the most effective treatment for a cow. If this is not done, the disease will continue to worsen, which will certainly lead to irreparable consequences, including the death of the cow.

A cow with clear signs of illness is immediately isolated from the entire herd in a separate room, which is kept warm and dry. Required frequent change bedding.

For a cow with smallpox, you need to choose a separate diet, which should consist of nutritious and balanced feed. In some cases, it may be necessary to switch to semi-liquid mixtures.

It is necessary to milk milk every day to prevent stagnation and mastitis. If the cow is in severe pain and does not allow herself to be touched, a special catheter can be used.

Treatment

The entire course of treatment of the udder and nipples should be comprehensive and consist of:

Reception antibacterial drugs, which form the basis of treatment;
When the ulcers disappear from the udder, the nipples should be regularly treated with antiseptics and healing ointments;
Treatment of the nose and areas around it with boric acid;

If you delay the start of treatment, there is a high risk of developing mastitis. IN such a case the udder will be swollen and hard, which makes milking difficult and brings even more discomfort to the cow.

Prevention

People who keep cows at home can protect their livestock from smallpox by regularly treating the udder with special antiseptic ointments, which are publicly available in pharmacies. It is easy to store at home or in a barn, and can be taken with you to pasture.

Large farms that contain huge numbers of cattle must follow a number of rules:

Before importing new cows, it is necessary to check data regarding smallpox outbreaks in their former habitats.
All newly arrived animals must undergo a month-long quarantine.
Farmers must monitor the cleanliness of the udder, and areas allocated for pastures must be treated with solutions that can protect livestock from many infections and viruses.
All farm workers who come into contact with animals are required to be vaccinated. If someone has not done it, such a worker is not allowed near the animals for 2-3 weeks.
If there is a threat of cows being infected with smallpox, the entire livestock is given preventive vaccination.
At least once a week, the farm must be cleaned and disinfected all equipment used to work with cows.

Cowpox is a disease that is now quite rare. It is classified as infectious and has viral etiology. Despite small degree prevalence, every farmer should get general idea about this disease, the causes of its occurrence, as well as signs of infection in cows. This information will help you detect the symptoms of the disease in time and begin treatment.

What is smallpox?

Smallpox is caused by an epitheliotropic DNA-containing virus, which, penetrating into the blood, provokes the appearance of fever, intoxication of the body and a papular-pustular rash on the skin and mucous membranes. In cows, rashes form mainly on the udder, sometimes on the neck and back. In young animals, the mucous membranes of the mouth are affected. In bulls, pustules and papules are localized mainly in the scrotum area.

The virus that causes smallpox has increased resistance to cold and dryness. It can remain viable for more than six months in animal feed, and remains active on their fur for more than 60 days. The pathogen dies under the influence of ultraviolet irradiation and is unstable to acids. Smallpox can be contracted in three ways:

Airborne.
Through the skin if there is damage on it.
Nutritional – through food, objects.

Causes

Outbreaks of true cowpox, called cowpox, have not been reported in Russia for many years, however, there have been cases of infection with the vaccinia virus, which spreads mainly after vaccination. This pathogen is similar to the one that causes smallpox in humans.

The causes of the disease are:

Contact with a sick animal or person.
Poor diet, lack of vitamins.
The presence of provoking factors - keeping cows in cold, damp conditions.
Lack of exercise.
Poor ventilation in barns.
Overcrowding of animals.

It has been established that outbreaks of smallpox are most often observed in the autumn-winter period, when animals are kept in a stall. Great crowding, dampness, draft, lack of fresh air lead to a decrease in immunity in cows, and this is main reason why animals cannot resist viral infections. If, on top of everything else, cows are poorly fed and do not receive enough vitamins, the likelihood of infection increases significantly.

Symptoms

Smallpox is developing rapidly. Having penetrated the blood, the virus causes general weakness, fever up to 41.5 degrees, loss of appetite. After about two days from the onset of the disease, the temperature returns to normal and the animal feels better. Further development of the disease occurs with visible symptoms:

So-called roseola - pink spots - appear on the udder, other parts of the body and mucous membranes.
After another two days, roseolas turn into compactions that rise above the skin; they have clearly defined red borders and a center that is slightly recessed.
The nodules are filled with light contents, they are called vesicles.
Vesicular formations gradually burst and become more dark color, become covered with crusts.
Closer to the final phase of the disease, the crusts and scabs disappear.

The disease, on average, lasts from 14 to 21 days, depending on the degree of resistance of the animal and the form of the disease. Since the udder of cows is predominantly affected, it becomes very painful when pockmarks form on it. A characteristic symptom This disease causes the animal to walk with its legs spread apart, trying to relieve its pain.

Attention! Cowpox is dangerous because pathogenic microflora - staphylococci, streptococci, coli. If this happens, there is a high chance of developing mastitis.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis is made based on the clinical manifestations of the disease and the results of laboratory tests. Already upon visual examination, in most cases it is clear that the animal is infected with smallpox, since papules and pustules have characteristics– the middle of the formations is slightly recessed inward and resembles a navel. When diagnosing, it is important to exclude other diseases that are different stages currents are similar to smallpox:

Foot and mouth disease.
Neodular dermatitis.
Scabies.
Eczema.

If a veterinarian has difficulty making a diagnosis, it makes sense to take biomaterial for testing and test laboratory test. To diagnose the disease, blood and skin particles taken from papules are used. If an animal has smallpox, antibodies to the virus will be found in its blood.

Attention! Antibodies in the blood of a sick cow will appear no earlier than 7–10 days after the pathogen enters the body. Previously, there is no point in taking blood for analysis.

The Paul biological test is another way to identify the virus. To do this, virus-containing material taken from a cow is introduced into the cornea of a rabbit. After a few days, the corneal layer of the experimental animal is examined under a magnifying glass. If round nodules with a dot in the center appear on it, then the cow is infected with smallpox.

The third way to identify the smallpox virus is to study the structure of infected cells under a microscope. They have characteristic changes. For examination, pieces of skin are taken from the lesions.

Treatment

There are no special treatments for cowpox. The main measures are aimed at relieving symptoms and preventing penetration pathogenic microflora into pustules. Sick animals are immediately transferred to separate barns. The stall must be warm, dry, and must have soft and lush bedding.

Treatment includes providing sick animals with a nutritious diet and vitamin supplements, and drinking plenty of fluids. This will help strengthen immune system so that the body can cope with the disease faster.

To prevent the development of complications, broad-spectrum antibiotics are used:

Bicillin.
Epicurus.
Oxytetracycline and others.

Reference. The dosage and duration of treatment will be determined by the veterinarian, taking into account the weight of the animal.

To speed up the regeneration process skin and to prevent the spread of infection, smallpox lesions are treated with ointments:

Bornoy.
Salicilova.
Zinkova.
Sintomycinova.

For the treatment of lesions, various disinfectant solutions. On the mucous membranes, pustules are lubricated with astringents herbal decoctions and disinfectants.

Reference. The prognosis for smallpox is favorable. Animals recover within 2-3 weeks and acquire lasting immunity to this disease.

Prevention

To prevent infection with smallpox in animals, vaccination of healthy animals is used. inactivated vaccines. It is important to observe a month-long quarantine for newly arrived cows on the farm. The import and acceptance of animals, equipment and feed from disadvantaged farms should not be allowed.

It is important timely diagnosis cases within farm. At the slightest suspicion of smallpox, sick individuals are separated from healthy ones, and the room is disinfected. To treat the floor and surfaces of the stall, use:

Hot solution of caustic soda in a concentration of 3-4%.
Formaldehyde (2%).
Bleached lime (2-3%).

Attention! Service personnel who come into contact with sick cows must follow preventive measures - disinfect their hands with a chloramine solution, and disinfect clothes and shoes in a special chamber.

If cases of smallpox are registered on a farm, quarantine is lifted 3 weeks after the last infected animal recovers. From this moment on, the farm is considered prosperous.

Cowpox, although it does not lead to the death of animals, still brings losses to farmers. Therefore, it is important to take all measures to protect the farm from this disease. The best preventative against smallpox is vaccination. After introducing inactivated microorganisms into the body, animals develop stable immunity to the pathogen.

I encountered the incredible: I became infected with false cowpox from a cow. The cow and I were treated for a long time - with varying success. How does a cow become infected? How to avoid getting sick yourself? Do cows and I develop immunity?

L.G., Danilovka

The information about the cow's illness in the letter is very scanty, so I can only assume that smallpox manifested itself in your farmstead. In cows, it usually occurs as a rash on the udder. After 5-6 days, red spots turn into blisters filled with gray-yellow liquid.

Infection with smallpox occurs through mucous membranes, skin when healthy animals come into contact with sick ones, through food, water, bedding, and through grass on pasture.

To protect yourself from illness, you need to follow sanitary and hygienic rules. Wash the cow's udder before milking warm water, wipe with a clean towel. After milking, wipe the udder and teats and apply disinfectant cream. The clothes you wear when milking a cow must be clean and cannot be taken home.

How to treat cowpox

Sick animals should be isolated in a dry, warm room and given easily digestible food. Potassium iodide is added to the water. Ulcers are cauterized with tincture of iodine, pockmarks are softened with neutral fats or ointments (boric, zinc, etc.). Milk is milked carefully.

There are also folk remedies treatment of cowpox. Animals are put on a “green” diet (fed mainly with green food). Garlic, elderberry, linden, and blackberry leaves are added to the food. Sores on the udder are washed with a warm infusion of elderberry and sorrel leaves. Finely chop two handfuls of each of the leaves, pour in a liter of boiling water, and then wash the wounds or (even better) make a poultice.

Milk from sick cows is used after half an hour of pasteurization at 85 degrees or five minutes of boiling.

Cows and humans who have had smallpox develop immunity to the disease. Still, it’s good if your cow is examined by a veterinarian, and go to the doctor yourself.

Nikolay Kubrin (veterinarian)

There is really little information. Did your cow go to the herd?

Typically, cows become infected with this virus from other sick cows. The onset of the disease is immediately visible: a frequent rash forms on the udder, which then forms whole purulent “islands” covered with a dense dirty brown crust. This is a viral infection of the cow's udder. If you also have sheep and goats on your farm, then this infection may also appear in them.

You didn't write anything about yourself. How did you feel? Have you ever had nodular rashes on the skin of your hands? Did you feel that you were “slightly” poisoned by stale food? Have you ever had a fever?

The fact is that this infection is transmitted to humans, and this happens during milking. If you had red-bluish nodes on your hands with a characteristic notch in the middle, like a tiny crater, then it really was cowpox, but not natural, but false (cowpox). It has another name - milker's knots.

No data on vaccinations

Have you vaccinated your nurse against smallpox? The fact is that these two diseases are caused by similar viruses, which means that a cow vaccinated against smallpox tolerates falsepox much easier. True, unlike the smallpox vaccine, which produces lasting immunity, this “milkmaid disease” (paravaccine) awards immunity for only a few months.

Watch your health! Smallpox "attacks" if a person's body is weakened by other diseases, and not only on those who lack immunity to smallpox. There is no risk of becoming infected by airborne droplets; fortunately (?) smallpox is transmitted only through direct, mechanical contact with a sick animal - milking.

But if a dairy animal is already sick, and, of course, you cannot do without milking, then at least wash your hands thoroughly after contact with the udder.

Only a veterinarian can make a correct, final diagnosis! Do not take on unnecessary responsibility by self-medicating both yourself and your cow.

Yulia Dvornikova (veterinary assistant)

Igor Nikolaev

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Infectious diseases cattle are considered a dangerous phenomenon due to their mass occurrence. Most diseases are transmitted along a chain to the entire population. Then the farm owner suffers serious losses due to long-term treatment and forced culling of animals.

Smallpox is highly contagious viral infection. If suspicious pimples appear on a cow’s udder, causing the animal severe pain, you need to urgently contact a specialist. How to recognize smallpox and can it be cured?

The appearance of the disease

Cowpox made its presence known at the end of the eighteenth century. In female cattle, blisters with purulent fluid were found on the udder. They looked like similar acne in humans. It is noteworthy that milkmaids were infected with cowpox and received immunity to natural pox.

Years of research have allowed scientists and doctors to conclude that cow and smallpox considered one disease, but two in different forms. The first provides immunity to the second.

True cowpox is caused by two viruses with similar morphological characteristics. They are able to adapt to environment, if they have settled in non-rotting tissues and the temperature is below zero. If the temperature is about four degrees Celsius, viruses can survive for a year and a half.

In warm weather (up to twenty degrees plus) they last for two months. You can kill the virus by boiling it. At temperatures from fifty to seventy degrees of heating, it dies in 5-20 minutes.

They appear from the following sources:

infected individual, its mucus from the mouth and nose;
the animal picked up dried crusts from the sores;
farm working tools, clothing, fabrics;
rodents and blood-sucking insects easily transmit smallpox;
Wounds and cracks on the body are a favorable environment for infection.

In addition to adult animals, the disease affects calves. For young animals, cowpox is especially dangerous due to fragile immunity.

To understand how smallpox takes over an animal's body and why it appears on the udder, you need to follow the journey of the virus.

Mechanism of nucleation

Inflammation begins from the place where the infection occurs. Red areas appear on the skin and mucous membranes. After a couple of days they turn into hard lumps. They then transform into watery cavities and pustules.

After this, the path of smallpox lies in The lymph nodes, blood and internal organs. This takes about two more days. At this time, changes in the animal’s behavior can indicate the onset of the disease:

You can confirm that you have smallpox by doing a blood test. The number of nodules, if the cow has a strong body, will be insignificant. The top layer of the resulting rash quickly dies and becomes hard. These crusts fall off. After them, the skin begins to renew itself.

But often a cow has a weakened immune system due to lack of nutrition, vitamins and minerals. It can be kept in cold and damp areas. Or treatment begins very late. Then the body has little resistance to infection.

Cowpox develops into a complicated form. It is accompanied by inflammation of the udder. Calves are often diagnosed with lung diseases and inflammation of the gastric mucosa.

Course of the disease

After infection, the above symptoms appear after about a week. The more time passes, the more actively the bubbles with liquid multiply. Pustules with pits in the center take over the body of the cow. There are about twenty or more of them.

Pustules on the udder round shape, oval on the nipples. They need to ripen for almost two weeks. After which they are covered with a dry crust. If there are many nodules, they can connect, turning into large wounds. They crack when dry. This causes the animal additional pain and discomfort.

Symptoms:

it is necessary to milk a cow, but the process is very difficult for her;
to avoid touching the udder, the cow spreads her hind legs wider. It's the same when walking;
inflammation of the udder makes it dense;
lactation may stop.

Signs of smallpox in young animals are deep ulcers on the mucous membranes of the mouth and pharynx. In adults, not only the udder can be affected. Sometimes ulcers cover the head, neck, thighs and other parts of the animal’s body.

Treatment of smallpox

Attentive and regular inspection The cow's udder will help the animal owner notice ulcers in time. And changes in her behavior and lack of appetite are even more alarming. Therefore, you need to immediately show the cow to a specialist, who will determine that cowpox has begun.

When the first symptoms occur, the individual must be housed separately from the rest of the population. This should be a dry, ventilated room. The pen is cleaned and the bedding is changed frequently.

Although the cow does not want to touch food, you should not keep her hungry. Light semi-liquid food can give her strength. Don't forget to drink water with potassium iodide.

The animal experiences pain during milking. Therefore, it is worth using a catheter to prevent milk from stagnating. It is not recommended for human consumption. After boiling, you can give it to young animals.

antibiotics;
cauterization of nodules and ulcers with antiseptics, tincture of iodine, chloramine;
for softening and healing, apply Vaseline, zinc or boron ointment to the areas;
The nasal area is washed with a solution of boric acid.