Blackleg in Cattle in the Irkutsk Region

Abstract

Blackleg is an acute, toxic, infectious, non-contagious disease of domestic and wild ruminants that occurs while the animals are pastured. This article describes an outbreak of blackleg on a farm in Siberia (Russia) in 2019. We provide a detailed description of the cases based on the results of comprehensive diagnostic and epidemiological investigations. For description of case and evaluation, we used the following methods: owner observations, descriptive epidemiology, clinical diagnostics, pathological examination and bacteriology. The distinctive features (in addition to the characteristic features) were as follows: the outbreak of the disease occurred in early spring when there was abundant snow cover and under unfavorable living conditions of animals and traumas; the disease appeared in both vaccinated and unvaccinated cattle; the characteristic clinical signs were low-grade fever, the absence of crepitus, and the presence of haematomas containing erythrocytes with basophilic granularity; thrombs in vessel and vacuolization in tissue of the adrenal gland. This paper aimed to present classical and new clinical and pathology changes in cattle with blackleg in winter conditions of Russian Siberia.

Using participatory epidemiology to investigate the causes of cattle abortion in Southwest Ethiopia

“…Participants noted that blackleg can present in various forms throughout the year, likely due to its endemic nature and the resilience of its spores, which can endure in soil for extended periods. Blackleg in cattle is a year-round occurrence but tends to be more prevalent in warmer seasons, particularly during wet, hot, and rainy periods when the bacteria thrive in warm and moist conditions [ 77 ]. Due to its brief incubation period, blackleg leads to swift death in affected cattle [ 42 ].…”

Prevalence of Cardiac Lesions in Cases of Bovine Blackleg in Tennessee (USA), 2004–2018

“…Cardiac lesions in the absence of skeletal lesions were reported in 2 cases of bovine blackleg in Trenque Lauquen (Argentina) [11]. In recent outbreaks of bovine blackleg, cardiac lesions were only reported in 11 of 43 cattle (25.6%) in an Irkutsk (Russia) farm [12] and in 13 of 15 cattle (88.6%) in a Punjab (Pakistan) farm [13]. It is therefore important to conduct another study to either corroborate or refute the recent high prevalence of cardiac lesions in cases of blackleg.…”