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Surveillance Vol.18 Special Issue 1991 Exotic diseases

Rinderpest ( Plague)

Geographical distribution The geographical distribution has con- tracted dramatically in the last 75 years although the disease raged across most of , Europe and in the past. In the last decade has been reported from countries in West, Central and East Africa, , parts of the Mid- dle East, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. A campaign for the eradication of rinderpest is underway in Africa, and similar programmes are planned for South-East Asia and the Middle East. An outbreak of rinderpest involving 28 herds occurred near Perth, Australia, in 1923 but was quickly eliminated. This is the only instance of rinderpest in Aus- tralia. It has never occurred in New Fig 11: Lesions on the hard palate in bovine rinderpest. Zealand.

putrefaction. Infected meat very quickly hoofed animals. Swine may become in- Cause loses its infectiousness, however the vi- fected and spread the disease. rus can persist for months in salted or Fa m i 1y , Pa ram y x o v i r id a e; genus, frozen meat. Morhi//iz1Iri/.i. The is related to that of , and peste des petits ruminants. Host Transmission is by direct animal to

The rinderpest virus is inactivated by animal contact, chieflv through

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Surveillance 18(3) 21 Surveillance Vol.18 Special Issue 1991 Exotic diseases

fore clinical signs are apparent, but nasal and nasal secretions from febrile animals, and the costs of control, there would be discharge and faeces are the main source and spleen, prescapular and mesenteric effects on overseas trade. Even though of infection for other animals. lymph nodes from dead animals. the spread of rinderpest through meat is In enzooticallyinfected areas, infected Demonstration of virus in the labora- unlikely, major beef markets would prob- wild game may be involved in spread of tory is by animal , tissue cul- ably close down immediately. Meat in- the disease. ture, immunodiffusion and immunoe- spection certificates for meat exports to a Under certain circumstances the L i- lectrophoresis. Antibody detection is by number of countries certify that New rus may persist in meat and thus infect gel diffusion and serum neutralization Zealand is free of rinderpest. Export of swine fed on it. The virus can then spread tests. live ruminants would also cease. to cattle, sheep, goats and other suscepii- ble ruminants. Such indirect spread is unusual. Risk of introduction Prevention Recovery from the disease results in lifelong , with no residual shed- Even with high doses of virus cattle Freedom from rinderpest is main- ding of the virus. cannot be infected with rinderpest by the tained by ensuring that importations of oral route. Pigs, however, may readily be cloven-footed animals and their meat infected by eating contaminated meat come only from countries which have Clinical signs scraps. In pigs the signs of rinderpest are been free from rinderpest for at least 12 mild, which may allow the disease to be months. The acute disease develops in three overlooked and so increase the chance of phases: infection spreading to cattle, sheep or Control (a) High goats. (b) Lesions on mucous membranes However, the riskof rinderpest enter- Control measures, should the disease leading to ing New Zealand is considered to be low. occur in New Zealand, would include (c) Gastrointestinal symptoms with Introduction in meat products is unlikely the following: profuse diarrhoea, dehydration provided certain conditions aremet. New the complete quarantine of infected and electrolyte imbalances. Many Zealand does not import live animals premises and the issuing of an In- die in 7-12 days. from countries with rinderpest fected Place Notice; the tracing of susceptible animals, The incubation period lasts 4-15 days. people and animal products coming Post-mortem lesions are generally on to and leaving the infected confined to the alimentary tract. Con- premises; gested, oedematous, haemorrhagic and the defining by the Chief Veterinary deep sharply demarcated ulcers are seen Officer of an Infected Area around the in the mucosa of the oral cavity, pharynx, Infected Place(s1. This area will be abomasum, caecum, caeco-colic junction subject to strict quarantine, surveil- and rectum. lance and movement control proce- The mucosae of the turbinate and na- dures; sal passages are eroded and coated with the slaughter of all affected and in- thick mucopurulent exudate. Conges- contact animals; tion and mucosal erosions may be present the adequate disposal of carcasses; in the mucous membranes of the the cleaning and disinfection of In- urogenital tract. Lymph nodes and ton- fected Premises; sils are swollen and congested. the re-stocking of farms under strict surveillance; the use of strategic as an Diagnosis Fig 12: Erosions on the oral mucosa seen with alternative strategy if the ‘stamping- bovine rinderpest. out’ approach fails. Diagnosis is confirmed by viral isola- tion and animal transmission. Detection Attenuated live cell culture vaccines of antibody in chronically ill or convales- Effects of introduction are available. cent animals would be diagnostic in the naive New Zealand animal population. Very high mortalities could be ex- Further reading - refer page 27 Specimens taken for laboratory diagno- pected should rinderpest enter New Zea- sis include heparinized blood and ocular land. In addition to these direct costs, 4,5, 8,10, 11,18, 19

22 Surveillance 1 B(3) Surveillance Vol.18 Special Issue 1991 Exotic diseases Further reading

I Acha. P N, Szyfres, B, 1987: Zoonoses and Communicable Diseases Common to Man and Animals. Scientific Publication No 503. Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, Washington. 2 Barlough, J E, Berry, E S, Skilling, D E, Smith, A W, 1986: The marine calicivirus story. The Compendium on Continuing Educationfor the Practicing Vererinarian 8: F5-Fl4, F7.5-F82. 3 Beveridge. W I B, 1986: Animal Health in Australia, Volunie I, Viral Diseases of Live- stock. Second edition. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. 4 Blaha, T, 1989:Applied Veterinary Epidetniol- ogy. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam. 5 Blood, D C, Radostits, 0 M, 1989: Veterinary Medicine. Seventh edition. Bailliere Tindall, London. 6 Bolis, C L, Gibbs, C J, 1990: Proceedings of an international roundtable on bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Journal of the American Vet- erinary Medical Association 196: 1673-1690. 7 Cooke, M, 1989: Observations on bovine spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie. Sur- veillance 16(4):8-9. 8 Food and Agriculture Organization of the (FAO), World Health Organi- zation (WHO), Office International des Epizooties (OIE), 1988: Aninial Health Year- hook. FAO, Rome. 9 Garland, A J M, Donaldson, A I, 1990: Foot- and-mouth disease. Surveillance 1714):12-14. 10 Geering, W A, Forman, A J, 1987: Animal Health in Australia, Volume 9, Exotic Dis- eases. Bureau of Rural Science, Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Canberra. 11 Gibbs, E P J, 1981: Virus Diseases of Food Animals, Volume II, Disease Monographs. Academic Press, London. 12 Hofstad, MS, 1984:DiseasesofPoultry. Eighth edition. Iowa State University Press, Ames. 13 Johnstone, A C, McKenzie, J S, 1989: Bovine spongifom encephalopathy: a new scrapie- like disease of cattle. Surwillance 16(3): 25- 26. 14 Kimberlin, R H, 1981: Scrapie. British Veteri- nary Journal 137: 105-1 12. 1.5 Leman, A D, Glock, R D, Mengeling, W L, Penny, R H C, Scholl, I, Straw, B, 1981: Diseases of Swine. Fifth edition. Iowa State University Press, Ames. 16 MacDiarmid, S C, 1989: Aspects of scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Sur- veillance 16(1J:11-13, 17 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1977: : A 's Guide to the Lrreruture. Ministry of Agriculture and Fisher- ies, Wellington. 18 Odend'hal, S, 1983: The Geographical Distri- bution ofViralDiseases. Academic Press, New York. 19 Office International des Epizooties, 1990: Ani- mal Health in the Eighties. Office Intema- tional des Epizooties, Paris 20 O'Neil, B D. 1990: New Zealand horse indus- tries and the effect of an exotic disease out- break. Surveillance 17(4J:12-14. 21 Timoney, J F, Gillespie, J H, Scott, F W, Barlough, J E, 1988: Wagan and Bruner's Mic,robiologp and Infectious Diseases of Do- mestic Animals. Eighth edition. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca. 22 Wells, G A H, Scott, A C, Johnson, C T, Gunning, R F, Hancock, R D, Jeffrey, M, Dawson, M, Bradley, R, 1987: A novel pro- gressive spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. I'eterinar~ Record 121: 419-420. 23 Wilesmith. J W, Wells, G A H, Cranwell, M P, Ryan, J B M, 1988: Bovine spongiform en- cephalopathy: epidemiological studies. \'et- erinurj Record 123: 638-644.

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