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Show farmer's Question Amerlcin Foundation tn " f3 hi Animal Health Ij, Jy WHAT ABOUT BRUCELLOSIS? Q: Are swine brucellosis and cattle cat-tle brucellosis caused by the same germs? A: No, though the germs are closely related. Q: Can swine brucellosis appear In human beings, too? A: Yes, In humans It Is called undulant fever. Farmers can get the disease when handling Infected animals at farrowing time or by contact with infected meat at butchering time. Q: How does swine brucellosis act? A: It may cause brood sows, to farrow stillborn or weak pigs. The germ may also cause damage to boars. Q: How can the owner be sure the trouble is brucellosis and not some other breeding disease? A: The only way Is to have a veterinarian check the herd and take blood samples for laboratory tests. Q: If brucellosis Is found, what can be done? A: If the Infected herd is a torn-mercial torn-mercial one, infected breeding stock should be finished and sent to slaughter. In cases where the owner wants to preserve breeding lines, the pigs should be segregated segre-gated at weaning time. Pigs from infected sows can be kept on clean ground and given periodic blood tests to weed out diseased animals. Q: How can pig raisers keep this disease oat of their herds? A: B r e e d 1 ng stock should be bought only from herds known to be free of brucellosis. brucel-losis. If In doubt, owners should Isolate newly purchased animals and have them blood tested. Q: Can brucellosis be cured? A: No known drug or combination combina-tion of drugs will cure brucellosis In swine. NOTE Due to space limitations, general questions cannot be handled han-dled by this column. |
