Page 461 - The Veterinary Laboratory and Field Manual 3rd Edition

398 Susan C. Cork

General signs commonly associated i The presence of oral lesions, ulceration
with notifiable animal diseases: or wounds on the lips, in the mouth or
around the mouth, with or without exces-
1 The disease is acute in onset and causes high sive salivation and lameness in cattle
mortality. sheep or goats.
2 The disease often affects more than one ani- ii Acute respiratory signs including cough-
mal in a group of animals and spreads rapidly ing and / or a nasal discharge in cattle,
to affect many other animals in a short period sheep and goats, poultry and horses.
of time (high morbidity). iii Acute diarrhoea either alone or in combi-
3 The onset of a notifiable disease on a particu- nation with respiratory signs and / or oral
lar farm or in a discreet animal population can lesions.
sometimes be associated with the introduc-
tion of a new animal or group of animals into Since both active and passive disease surveillance
a herd or flock, for instance when one or more systems described above rely almost entirely on a
animals has been purchased from a market or report based on ‘clinical suspicion’ provided by a
directly from another farmer or trader. veterinarian or veterinary paraprofessional or the
4 In some instances, the introduction of a noti- description of a disease provided by a farmer, the
fiable animal disease into a particular locality data provided has limited value. There is there-
may be associated with the migration of ani- fore a strong justification for such systems to be
mals through an area when the migratory supported by diagnostic laboratory services. In
animals mix with or come into contact with most developing countries, it is difficult to reach
animals that are normally resident in that the level of technology required for the diagnosis
area. of many diseases at the level of district or regional
laboratories. However, in such cases, field or dis-
trict level laboratories can play a useful role in
Specific signs associated with processing samples for diagnostic testing to be
notifiable animal diseases carried out at a regional, provincial or national
reference laboratory, where a more sophisticated
1 Sudden death constitutes an emergency level of technology has been established.
since the cause of death may be anthrax, As and when disease reporting is organized on
which can be transmitted to humans – an a formal basis the service provider can be trained
anthrax investigation must be conducted to capture the salient information relating to
before the dead animal is moved. such an incident on a standardized reporting
2 Abortion: all cases of abortion should be form, based on clinical suspicion, which he then
reported immediately. Sanitary precautions forwards to the nearest state veterinary office.
should be taken since most causes of abortion Normally, the state veterinarian would then con-
are zoonotic diseases and can cause sickness duct an outbreak investigation and attempt to
or death in humans. learn more about the suspected case or outbreak,
3 Acute onset of unusual aggressive or abnor- tracing the possible cause or source of infection
mal behaviour or change in normal character and the likely spread and also try to verify the
or behaviour, especially in dogs but also cat- cause by collecting and submitting appropriate
tle, horses and sheep and goats. laboratory samples to the nearest diagnostic lab-
4 The presence of high fever associated with oratory. In many countries, and especially under
any of the following additional signs: circumstances where very few veterinarians are

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