Agriculture Form 2 – Livestock Health I (Introduction to Livestock Health)

Introduction

• Health is the state of the body in which all the organs and systems are normal and functioning normally.
• Disease is any deviation from the normal health of the animal.

Importance of Keeping Livestock Healthy:

• Healthy animals give high income due to low treatment costs.

• The productive life span of a healthy animal is longer.
• High production.
• Healthy animals can multiply regularly.
• Healthy animals give high quality products for example eggs.
• Safety of consumers of livestock products.

Predisposing Factors to Livestock Diseases

• These are conditions within or around the animal that make it easy for an animal to contract a disease.

They include:

• Animal factors such as;
  
  • species,
  • breed,
  • age,
  • sex
  • colour of the animal.
• Environmental factors such as;
  
  • chilling,
  • being rained on,
  • exposure to hot sun
  • dampness.
• Management factors such as;
  
  • poor feeding,
  • housing,
  • handling
  • hygiene,
  • overcrowding .

Signs of ILL-Health in Livestock

• Abnormal behaviour for example separation from the rest of the herd and restlessness.
• Abnormal posture for example limping and lameness.
• Alimentary canal disfunction
  such as blood stained faeces and abnormal defecation, diarrhoea and dysentery.
• Urination:
  high frequency or too low and having strange colour.
• Skin: rough with scaly skin, blisters on the skin and hair loss.

Causes of Diseases

• Pathogenic causes
  
  • viruses,
  • rickettsia,
  • bacteria,
  • protozoa
  • fungi.
• Physical causes;
  
  • fractures,
  • dislocation,
  • sprains .
• Nutritional disorders for example milk fever.
• Chemical causes for example poisoning by agrochemicals.

Categories of Diseases

• Notifiable diseases
  
  • These are diseases which cause high economic losses.
  • Any case should be reported to the Chiefs, D.O.s, veterinary officers or the police.
• Tick-borne diseases – Transmitted by ticks.
• Breeding diseases – Transmitted through mating.
• Nutritional diseases for example milk fever and bloat.
• Parasitic diseases for example ascariosis.

General Methods of Disease Control

• Quarantine.
• Vaccination.
• Control of vectors by use of acaricides and rotational grazing.
• Disinfecting the equipment and buildings.
• Use of preventive drugs.
• Proper feeding of livestock.
• Culling of the animals which are carriers/slaughtering the affected animals.
• Use of artificial insemination to control breeding diseases.
• Proper selection and breeding of animals.
• Proper housing and hygiene,
• Isolating sick animals.

Appropriate Methods of Handling Livestock

Animals are handled for the following reasons:

• When inspecting the animal to ascertain any abnormality or signs of diseases.
• When administering any form of treatment such as drenching, injection and mastitis control.
• When spraying or hand dressing the animal with chemicals to control external parasites.
• When milking the animal.
• When performing some of the management practices such as dehorning, disbudding, castration, hoof trimming .

When carrying out these activities animals should be restrained in a crush.

Other methods of restraining animals include the use of;

• halters,
• ropes,
• bull ring
• lead stick.