Classwork Series and Exercises {Agricultural Science – SS1}: General Control Measures of Diseases and Parasites

WEEK 7

Agricultural Science. S.S.S 1, Third Term

TOPIC: General Control Measures of Diseases and Parasites

Content

Quarantine of a new stock
Inoculation: A vaccine is injected Into the animals to make them develop immunity against certain disease e.g rinders pest.
Proper sanitation through daily cleaning of feeds,regular removal of dropping and waste products, regular disinfection of pen
Good management of stock through good feedings,rotation grazing

Control of Intermediate Host and Reservoirs

Limiting the contact between intermediate and final hosts by improvements in management.
Direct action may be taken to reduce or eliminate intermediate host populations.
Reduction in the number of snail intermediate host by chemical (molluscides) or biological control (ducks, Maris species of snails).
Reduction in the number of snail intermediate hosts by drainage, fencing and other management practices.
Reduction in the number of insect and tick vectors by chemical (insecticides/acaricides), biological control (hymenopterous insects, entomopathogenic fungi and Bacillus thuringiensis) and genetic control (sterile male technique, chromosomal translocation).
Use of vaccines (Tickgard) at appropriate times may control the vector population.
Destruction of reservoir hosts is important in controlling certain parasites, e.g., rodents for Leishmania and antelopes for African trypanosomes.

Control and Reduction of Infection as soon as Outbreak Occurs

Segregate sick animals.
Stop all animals, animal products, vehicles and persons coming into and out of the farm.
Call a veterinarian for advice, adopt containment vaccination.
Avoid grazing in a common place.
Ban all visitors to the farm.
Provide foot dips containing disinfectants at the entry of the farm and gear up sanitation and hygiene.

Isolation of Sick Animals

Isolation means segregation of animals, which are known to be or suspected to be affected with a contagious disease from the apparently healthy ones.
Segregated animals should be housed in a separate isolation ward situated far away from the normal animal houses.
The isolation ward should never be at a higher level than that of the healthy shed.
If a separate accommodation is not available the animals concerned should be placed at one end of normal animals’ buildings, as far away from healthy stock as practicable.
Attendants working on sick animals and equipment such as buckets, shovels etc. used for them should not be used for healthy stock. If this is not practicable, the sick animals should be attended to daily, after the healthy stock.
After this, the equipment should be thoroughly disinfected before they are used on healthy stock next day; the attendant too should wash his hands and feet in antiseptic and discard the clothes in which he worked.
The isolated animals should be brought back into the herd only when the outbreak ends and they are fully recovered.

Quarantine Newly Purchased Animals

Quarantine is the segregation of apparently healthy animals (especially animals being brought into the herd for the first time), which have been exposed to the risk of infection from those animals, which are healthy and unexposed to the risk of infection.
The idea is to give sufficient time for any contagious disease that the quarantine animals may be having, to become active and obvious. Hence, the quarantined period depends on the incubation period of a disease. But in practice a quarantine period of 30 days covers almost all diseases.
For rabies, the quarantine period should be about six months.
During the quarantine period, animals should be thoroughly screened for parasitic infestation by faecal examination and de-worming carried out on the 23rd/24th day, if need be.
The animals should also be subjected to dipping or spraying on the 25th/26th day for removing ectoparasites if any.

Economic Importance of Animal Diseases