Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia and Mannheimia haemolytica-associated acute respiratory disease of goats and sheep in Afar Region, Ethiopia.

In April 2002, an investigation into an outbreak of acute respiratory disease in goats and sheep in Milae (Afar), Ethiopia was conducted. The investigation involved 4 flocks (722 sheep and 750 goats in total) and comprised the disease history, clinical and post-mortem examination, and microbiological analysis of nasal swabs, lung lesions, and pleural fluid samples. Clinically diseased animals exhibited severe respiratory distress, and necropsy of two of the goats demonstrated fibrinous pneumonia, lung sequestra, and excessive accumulation of straw coloured fluid in the thoracic cavity. Mannheimia haemolytica biotype T was isolated from nine (six goats and three sheep) out of 23 nasal swabs (39.1%). In the two necropsied animals Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae (Mccp) was isolated from the lungs, and Mannheimia haemolytica biotype T was isolated from lung lesions and thoracic fluid. An unidentified Mycoplasma species was isolated from the thoracic fluid of one of the goats. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from a lung sequestrum of one of the necropsied goats. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility test results indicated that two (33.3%) of the six M. haemolytica isolates that were tested were resistant to ampicillin and penicillin G, three (50%) to tetracycline, four (66.7%) to oxacillin, five (83.3%) to erythromycin, and six (100%) to clindamycin. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was resistant to all of the different classes of antimicrobials that were tested. Pleuropneumonia caused by Mccp, and secondary complications caused by M. haemolytica and the other unidentified Mycoplasma species, were confirmed as the cause of the outbreak. Morbidity was not associated with the species of animals affected (P > 0.05); however, mortality was significantly higher in goats than sheep (P < 0.05).

Anthrax in Wabessa village in the Dessie Zuria district of Ethiopia.

In 2002 an investigation of sudden death in a goat in Wabessa village in the Dessie Zuria district of Ethiopia was undertaken using fresh blood brought to the Kombolcha Regional Veterinary Laboratory. The sample was examined using standard bacteriological techniques and animal pathogenicity tests were also performed. The laboratory investigation revealed Bacillus anthracis as the cause of sudden death. Information gathered from stockowners in the same village revealed other similar recent cases and deaths, both in animals and humans, with farmers clearly describing the clinical signs and necropsy findings of anthrax. The disease occurs annually in this area in May and June, and in the 2002 outbreak mortality rates of 7.7%, 32.7% and 47.1% were observed in cattle, goats and donkeys, respectively. This study indicates that the community of this particular village neither knows of, nor practises, any of the conventional methods for anthrax control. The cutaneous form of the disease in humans and the environmental contamination associated with the practise of opening cadavers are briefly described and the findings are discussed with reference to the epidemiology of anthrax in both Ethiopia and elsewhere. Control strategies are also recommended.