VMD 512: Zoo/Wild Animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

PARATUBERCULOSIS

• The disease is caused by Mycobacterium paratuberculosis and is a rod-shaped organism resembling the tuberculosis bacillus.

Species affected

• Mostly bovids, wild sheep, wild goat, antelopes, cervids etc. may get affected.
• It was even reported in equines and swines have been reported as the carriers.

Mode of spread and significance

• Ingestion of food and water contaminated by the feces of infected animals.
• Intra-uterine transmission occurs at a fifty percent incidence from the infected mother.
• This disease is the one causing specific-infectious enteritis, in the affected wild animals.

Symptoms 

• Profuse diarrhea that is more often odorless, and there is no accompanying tetanus. There appears to be no correlation between the severity of the clinical syndrome and the severity of the lesions.
• Emaciation and intermandibular-oedema.

Diagnosis and therapy

• By culture, PCR tests and by staining with acid-fast preparations like Ziehl-Neelsen and Ponder-Kinyoun stains. Also, biopsies of lymph nodes, FAT, fecal culture, complement fixation tests, stained fecal smears also help the diagnosis.
• In dead animals, hypertrophied intestinal mucosa is seen and the primary site of infection is the lower gastr-intestinal tract mainly the posterior jejunum and ileum. Most of the bacilli are seen in the macrophages and giant cells.
• There is no true therapy for Johne’s disease but general therapy may be carried out to ameliorate the clinical signs.
• Fluids and vitamins may be given taking care of the animal’s condition.