Clinical Signs
- Fever
- Anorexia (poor appetite)
- Weakness
- Death in young animals
- Abortion (may be 100% in the herd)
Treatment
There is no specific treatment for Rift Valley Fever. Any animal suspected of having Rift Valley Fever should be reported to the State Veterinarians or USDA Area Veterinarian in Charge immediately.
Prevention
Human and animal vaccines exist for those areas where Rift Valley Fever is endemic. Control of the mosquito population is also necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.
Public Health
Rift Valley Fever is a highly zoonotic disease, meaning that it can be transmitted from animals to people readily. The disease is typically mild with patients showing flu-like symptoms and photophobia (sensitivity to light). Recovery often occurs in seven days and is uneventful.
In rare cases, people with Rift Valley Fever may develop severe complications including eye disease, meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and surrounding tissue) or hemorrhagic fever. Patients who develop eye disease as a result of Rift Valley Fever often experience permanent vision loss, but the disease is not fatal.
However, those patients who develop hemorrhagic fever often have vomiting and diarrhea with blood and may bleed from the gums. These patients also may develop liver complications. The mortality rate is approximately 50% in patients with hemorrhagic fever.
Rift Valley Fever may be prevented by taking appropriate measures to control mosquitoes and using personal protection equipment (gloves, surgical masks, etc.) when working with potentially infected animals.
Ringworm in Cattle
The HAF RESEARCH data show that as winter progresses, particularly if wet, there is a significant increase in the numbers of cattle, especially growing cattle and calves, with skin disease,. Ringworm is one of the commonest skin diseases in such cattle
What is Ringworm
Ringworm is caused by infection with a fungus that lives in hairy skin
Clinical Signs
- Grey-white areas of skin with an ash like surface
- Usually circular in outline and slightly raised
- Size of lesions very variable, can become very extensive
- In calves most commonly found around eyes, on ears and on back, in adult cattle chest and legs more common
Diagnosis
- On the clinical signs described above
- Culture of skin sample can be used in unusual cases to confirm ringworm and identify type of fungus
Treatment
- Ringworm is usually self-limiting, this means that the skin will usually heal without treatment. However this can take up to nine months
- The most commonly used treatment was griseofulvin in the feed, however, this is no longer available for use in food producing animals.
- The only remaining treatments are sprays. These are expensive, but can be very effective
- Many unlicensed treatments have been used from snail slime to copper sprays. They are cheap but have no proven efficacy
Control
- The environment is the major source of infective fungi. Effective control of ringworm will only occur if the environment is properly cleaned and disinfected. This must be done between each batch of calves
- Vaccination will significantly reduce the number of animals affected with ringworm, and affected calves will have fewr, smaller crusts. On most farms, this may be of little benefit, but vaccination can be extremely useful on farms with a severe problem, particularly if this is in adult cattle.
- Ringworm can spread from cattle to humans. Thus if there is a lot of human:cow contact, such as on open farms, vaccination is essential if ringworm has been previously identified