The causative agent of pig tsuma, its symptoms and treatment, is it dangerous for humans?

Swine fever is a dangerous infectious disease that can cause animals to develop other more dangerous diseases. For example, they may develop pneumonia, hemorrhagic diathesis or lobar inflammation of the intestines. Before you try to treat the plague, you need to become more familiar with the characteristics of this disease.

Description of the disease

Every person who plans to raise pigs in the future should familiarize themselves with the description of plague in piglets. This infectious disease rarely appears in piglets. However, if the animals are already sick, it will not be easy to cure them due to the plague’s resistance to drug treatment. The disease is very dangerous, as individuals of any age can get it. Even adult piglets with a strong immune system are not protected from the appearance of plague. The disease was first identified in Africa. However, over time it spread to other continents. Now animals in any country can become infected with the plague.

How is it transmitted?

It is necessary to understand in advance the characteristics of the transmission of this dangerous infectious disease. Animals can become infected with plague after contact with already infected piglets. In addition, the causative agent of the disease is found in water, food and even on the surface of equipment. The penetration of the virus into the body is facilitated by damage to the surface of the skin and even bites left by insects.

Most animals that become infected with plague die. However, individuals who managed to stay alive remain carriers of the virus.

All pigs that live within a radius of ten kilometers are at risk of infection. Therefore, immediately after the first symptoms of the disease appear, infected animals are isolated from the rest of the piglets.

Symptoms of CSF

Symptoms directly depend on the type of disease.

Intestinal form

Many piglets become infected with intestinal disease, due to which the animal’s digestive processes are disrupted. The first signs of plague do not appear immediately, but several days after infection. Therefore, farmers are not always able to immediately determine what the pig is sick with.

First, animals begin to experience constipation. Problems with bowel movements continue for several weeks. During the intervals between constipation, pigs develop diarrhea. Then other signs of the virus gradually appear, which include fever and enterocolitis. A sick piglet stops eating, which leads to weight loss. If left untreated, the infected animal will die.

Pulmonary form

This type of distemper is considered one of the most dangerous, as it often leads to the death of the sick animal. At first, distemper does not manifest itself in any way, and therefore it is difficult to determine that the piglet is sick with something. However, over time, the first symptoms begin to appear, to which you should pay attention.

The initial signs of pneumonic plague include the following:

• cough that gradually gets worse;
• pneumonia, accompanied by an increase in body temperature;
• discharge of mucous fluid from the nose;
• difficulty breathing with snoring.

Also, animals that have become ill with the plague often begin to sit on their hind legs. They do this to reduce pain in the lungs.

Chronic form

Sometimes sick animals do not die from the disease, but remain alive. In this case, the plague becomes chronic. Symptoms appear from time to time. Piglets periodically suffer from fever, pneumonia and severe coughing. Sometimes sick pigs develop symptoms characteristic of an atypical virus. These signs include the following:

• weight loss, due to which the animal has virtually no fat left;
• fever due to increased body temperature;
• loss of appetite;
• conjunctivitis;
• difficulty breathing.

Acute form

According to many farmers, the acute form is considered the most dangerous, since due to the rapid development of the disease, animals die within 5-10 days. It is not easy to identify the disease in a timely manner due to the fact that it does not appear immediately. In the first days the disease does not manifest itself in any way. However, then the following symptoms suddenly appear:

• increased temperature and fever;
• diarrhea, during which stool with red streaks of blood is released;
• nasal congestion;
• redness of the eyes;
• the appearance of yellow pustules in the ears and abdomen;
• minor subcutaneous hemorrhages.

Lightning form

People who raise small pigs should be wary of the lightning-fast type of virus. This disease most often appears in piglets less than six months old. The fulminant form is dangerous for weakened animals. They may die within a few days of symptoms appearing.

Common signs of fulminant distemper include:

• Vomit. This is the main symptom that appears much earlier than others.
• Spots under the skin. They appear as a result of subcutaneous bleeding resulting from vascular damage.
• Temperature increase. Due to inflammatory processes in the body, body temperature rises greatly.

Subacid form

Some animals have conditional resistance to this virus and therefore rarely become infected with other types of virus. Most often, such pigs suffer from a subacid type of disease, which has symptoms of pulmonary and intestinal forms.

The duration of the illness is two and a half weeks. After this, subacid plague can take on a chronic form. If this does not happen, the animal will die due to complications.The most common complication is salmonellosis, which impairs intestinal function. Animals develop diarrhea with the discharge of pus and blood. The piglets also stop eating, which leads to rapid weight loss.

Diagnosis of the disease

Some farmers believe that it is possible to diagnose the plague themselves. However, this is not easy to do, and therefore special laboratory tests must be carried out to establish an accurate diagnosis. Most often, during the diagnosis process, a blood sample is taken and tests are performed. In this case, blood must be taken from animals that have been sick for a long time or have been in contact with piglets infected with the distemper virus.

Sometimes the diagnosis is confirmed by examining spleen particles. However, this is done in extreme cases when a blood test did not help determine the disease.

Treatment of classic swine fever

Although the plague is considered an old disease, no effective cure has yet been developed against it. Therefore, if it becomes known that a piglet has contracted this disease, it is immediately isolated from other animals. Emergency vaccination is also carried out, which sometimes saves the lives of already infected piglets.

If vaccination cannot be carried out, it means that the livestock will have to be destroyed and their corpses burned. This will prevent the spread of the disease.

Is swine fever dangerous for humans?

Many farmers who plan to raise piglets are interested in whether plague is dangerous for humans. You can relax, as this disease does not pose a danger to people. There has not been a single recorded case of a person contracting the plague from a piglet. The meat of sick animals can even be eaten.However, before this it is subjected to heat treatment for a long time. It is thoroughly fried or boiled in boiling water for several hours. Smoking such meat is contraindicated, since smoking does not destroy the causative agents of plague.

Disease prevention

The following preventive measures are identified to protect piglets from plague:

• maintaining order inside the pigsty and in areas for walking animals;
• regular disinfection of the premises;
• disinfection of drinking water for pigs and heat treatment of feed;
• vaccination against plague;
• fencing the pigsty with a fence to prevent foreign animals from entering its territory;
• organizing a separate place in the pigsty for bathing animals.

Prevalence of CSF in Russia and in the world

The disease is rare in the Russian Federation, since most piglets are required to receive special vaccinations. The most infected pigs were in 2010-2013. During this period of time, more than a million pigs were destroyed. Distemper is most often found in African countries, where pigs are vaccinated much less frequently.

Conclusion

Some farmers encounter plague when raising piglets. Therefore, before breeding such animals, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the description of such a virus, its symptoms and methods of prevention. This will help protect animals from becoming infected with plague.