Each farmer in the cattle breeding (cattle) is faced with various diseases. And if some are easily cured and soon subside, others require a serious approach to fixing the problem. This group also includes chlamydia, whose symptoms depend on the type of disease. What kind of ailment is it, how to recognize it, how to treat it, whether preventive measures exist - you will learn about this from the article.

Important! Chlamydia is recorded in all countries of the world and causes serious economic damage to agricultural enterprises.

What is this disease

Chlamydia cattle is a contagious infectious disease that manifests itself:

• rhinitis (in young individuals);
• bronchial pneumonia;
• polyarthritis;
• catarrh of the stomach;
• inflammation of the brain and spinal cord;
• mastitis;
• inflammation of the cornea and conjunctiva;
• the emergence of non-viable offspring.

Pathogen, sources of infection

This disease causes the penetration into the body of the so-called chlamydia - bacteria from the genus Chlamydophila, parasitizing inside a living cell. Initially, cattle chlamydia was described in 1923 by US scientists Fraum and Hart. In the Soviet Union, this disease was first established in 1967.

The causative agent is characterized by survivability in an unprotected environment: when seeping into the water system, it remains resistant for 17 days, in the snow for 18 days, and under the snow for 29. The pathogen is also viable in pasteurized milk for almost 23 days. In cowsheds where cows are kept, the pathogen remains virulent for 5–6 weeks.

The sources of infection are mainly:

• sick animals;
• secretion during calving or abortion;
• excreta;
• sperm;
• milk.

Methods of transmission of a microorganism:

• contact (during insemination);
• alimentary (when eating food contaminated with feces);
• airborne.

Animals inseminated with chlamydia sperm suffer from infertility. If conception has occurred, the embryo becomes infected in the womb, which entails stillbirth or miscarriage.

Forms and symptoms of infection

The symptomatology of cattle chlamydia is determined by the form of the disease. There are 5 such species in total and each of them has special characteristics of the course and manifestation of the disease, but the first signs are noticeable already 3–20 days after infection.

Respiratory

If the infection leaks into the body through the respiratory tract, this form of the disease is called respiratory.

Distinctive signs of such an ailment:

• high temperature up to 40–41 ° C, which lasts several days;
• serous discharge, which after a few days takes a mucopurulent texture;
• cough;
• secretion of tear fluid;
• edema and hyperemia of the nasal sinus;
• heart palpitations and breathing;
• conjunctivitis and swelling of the eyelids.

Infection of animals with this form reaches 70–80% of the livestock, mortality - 15–25%.

Intestinal

This form of chlamydia can be earned along with an infected feed, which preserved the discharge of affected animals.And it manifests itself with such symptoms:

• temperature increase up to 40–40.5 ° C;
• diarrhea with a splash of blood and mucus;
• rejection of feed;
• the mucous membrane of the mouth is hyperemic;
• weakness;
• accelerated breathing and palpitations;
• general depression.

Cows sometimes have erosion and sores in their mouths. But the main characteristic of the disease is a violation of the digestive tract.

Infection of cattle with intestinal type is 30–70%, mortality is 20–30%.

Genital

Infection occurs with unnatural fertilization or natural, if the bull is a carrier of infection.

The main manifestations of the genital type of the disease are:

• delayed release of the placenta (if the delivery took place without complications);
• mastitis;
• miscarriages (usually by 7–8 months, sometimes 4–5 months) - 30–50% of cases;
• stillbirth;
• inflammation of the endometrium and metritis;
• infertility;
• overwork.

With an outbreak of infection, 25-60% of the population is affected.

Important! Loss of young animals with genital form is 60–70%.

Encephalitis

The disease affects the nervous system and musculoskeletal system.

At the same time, the following symptoms appear in cattle:

• muscle cramps;
• tremor of limbs and head;
• gait;
• violation of coordination.

Serious disorders of the nervous system lead to the death of the animal. Mortality in encephalitis chlamydia is almost 100%.

Conjunctival form

This kind of disease is characterized by the development of conjunctivitis.

Wherein:

• discharge appears from the eyes;
• the eyelids swell;
• photophobia develops;
• the area of ​​the mucous membrane of the eye is covered with fine-grained growths.

Inflammation can pass to the cornea, causing keratitis and even ulceration.

Diagnostics

For analysis, the following materials are sent to the veterinary laboratory:

• the liquid part of the blood of aborted or other suspicious animals (repeat on the 14th and 21st day);
• pieces of the placenta, lymph nodes, embryo abomasum, parenchymal organs of the testes of dead bulls;
• samples of the seed of suspicious bulls.

When clarifying the diagnosis, the following indicators are taken into account:

• epizootological information;
• clinical indicators;
• mutations detected after death;
• conclusions of serological and microbiological expertise;
• microscopy parameters and bioassay.

Important! If you suspect chlamydia research goal - to identify chlamydia.

From pathological materials, smears are prepared, which are filled with orange acridine or stained with one of the following methods:

• Stampa;
• Machiavello;
• Hymens;
• Castañeda;
• Romanovsky-Giemsa.

Intravital animals remove smears from the anterior nasal sinuses and prepare scrapings from this material.

An effective technique is serological testing. The laboratory mainly conducts a long-binding reaction and a complement adhesion response. Sometimes they resort to a reaction of immunofluorescence, indirect hemagglutination.

There is a more effective method of serological research - enzyme immunoassay. It is based on the selection of agglutinins for the antigen inherent in a particular group. The accuracy of such a study can be 98.7%.

At the same time, since chlamydia resembles many diseases and often goes along with them, all approaches are used to establish it.

Did you know? Cows have a strong sense of smell - they are able to pick up odors at a distance exceeding 5 km.

In mature individuals, chlamydia is important to distinguish from:

• acute infectious zooanthroponotic disease of campylobacteriosis;
• leptospirosis;
• salmonellosis;
• contagious follicular inflammation of the vagina;
• trichomoniasis;
• contagious rhinotracheitis;
• brucellosis;
• listeriosis.

In young people, chlamydia is distinguished from diseases such as:

• parainfluenza;
• contagious diarrhea;
• eimeriosis;
• white muscle disease;
• pasteurellosis;
• viral rhinotracheitis;
• adenovirus infection;
• mycoplasmosis;
• Escherichiosis;
• listeriosis;
• rickettsial keratoconjunctivitis;
• avitaminosis;
• rickets;
• anaerobic enterotoxemia;
• respiratory syncytial virus;
• salmonellosis;
• diplococcosis;
• telaziosis.

Pathological changes

In miscarriages and calves that die immediately after birth, cyanosis of the skin in the nose, suspension, forehead, oral mucosa and conjunctiva is observed. An autopsy reveals serous edema of the skin and fiber on the neck, in the submandibular zone, perineum, sternum and pelvis. In addition to edema, hemorrhages are noticeable in the subcutaneous tissue.

In the pericardial sac, sternum and abdominal part, the concentration of edematous liquid of straw-yellow color with a reddish tint is mainly fixed. In the lungs of an aborted embryo or a young deceased young, a fixed venous hyperemia is diagnosed, often accompanied by swelling.Also, at autopsy, symptoms of nonspecific pneumonia or catarrhal-purulent bronchopneumonia are recorded.

Serous-mucous inflammation is found in the stomach and narrow intestine. Often in miscarriages, the mucous membrane of the large intestine (mainly the colon) is a watery-gelatinous edema, filled with a reddish-brown jelly-like mass.

Point bruising is observed in the kidneys; venous stasis appears in the section of the brain layer at the incision.

Did you know? The cow’s nose is similar to the pillow of a human finger - it has the same unique pattern on it. According to the imprint of the nose of animals, they are distinguished with reliability up to 100%.

In young people who died or were killed at the age of 8–20 days, at the initial stage of the disease, transformations in the heart are detected: on the epicardium or on the inside of the pericardium, grayish-yellow layers of fibrin are observed.

In cows that died immediately after childbirth or miscarriage, with the genital type of chlamydia, the membrane of the uterine horns is full of blood and swollen. On the last visible necrosis and hemorrhage.

In bulls, an increase in the genital glands (orchitis) and supra-testicular lymph nodes is recorded, the excretory ducts are inflamed. Hemorrhages are found in the prostate and urethral mucosa.

When preparing animals that died of respiratory chlamydia, the following changes are detected:

• the mucous membrane of the nose and throat is hyperemic, with hemorrhage and edema;
• in the lungs foci of thickening are noticeable;
• mucous or purulent-mucous fluid is found in the bronchi;
• dilated mediastinal and bronchial lymph nodes, hemorrhages are observed in the section.

In cattle that have fallen from an intestinal type of disease, it is found:

• acute gastroenteritis;
• edematous mucosa of the abomasum;
• spot hemorrhages;
• erosion and ulcers of a distorted form;
• degeneration in the kidneys, liver and spleen.

Treatment

Chlamydia cattle are treated with tetracycline antibacterial agents.

Young growth and bulls are prescribed oxytetracycline in the following dosages:

• first day: two times 5000 units. per kilogram of weight;
• 2-10th day: once a day at 5000 units / kg.

Convalescents serum is also prescribed to calves at the rate of 0.7 ml per kilogram of weight. Sometimes dibiomycin is added to the solution.

In the presence of chlamydial pneumonia, it is better to use aerosol preparations that are sprayed onto the mucous membranes of animals.

Therapy becomes more effective in combination with pro-immune sera and resistors.

Chlamydia vaccine

Since the disease is not always easy to cure and sometimes it is not possible to avoid the massive death of cattle, farms take certain measures to prevent an outbreak of infection.For the prevention of chlamydia, a culture-specific inactivated emulsin vaccine is used. Immunity against the pathogen by vaccinated individuals lasts for a year.

Important! Vaccination is allowed only to healthy individuals. When symptoms occur, the animals are immediately separated from the livestock and treatment is started.

Other preventive measures

To protect against outbreaks of chlamydia and its spread, you must follow these simple rules:

1. Observe animal sanitation.
2. Organize a barrier.
3. Do not import cattle from points that are unfavorable for the epidemiological state.
4. For all animals entering the barn, a thirty-day quarantine is mandatory. In this case, periodic examination is performed for clinical manifestations and thermometry is selectively performed.
5. Adhere to the standards for the placement of cattle in compliance with the microclimate in the cowsheds and the proper sanitary and veterinary condition of pastures and watering.
6. Check bulls for chlamydia twice a year.

As you can see, chlamydia can cause various problems. But adequate behavior, competent diagnosis and timely treatment will help to avoid significant loss of livestock.