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Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases of Livestock and Control

Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases of Livestock and Control

Metabolic diseases are non-infectious conditions and result from a disturbance in metabolism or metabolic processes in the animal rather than under-nutrition or deficiencies.

Nutritional diseases on the other hand are also non-infectious but may result from malnutrition or under-nutrition.

Where they are metabolic or nutritional, these conditions do affect the productivity of ruminants and some can be fatal and therefore deserves proper attention by the livestock farmer.

1. Metabolic Diseases

Metabolic diseases of livestock include the following;

a. Bloat (Tympany)

This is a condition characterised by a distension of the rumen and reticulum in ruminants with gas (mostly carbon dioxide and methane) resulting from overfeeding with grains and some types of legumes/pastures.

This type of bloat is primary bloat or frothy bloat. Bloat can also result from an instruction in the rumen or interference with the mechanism of eructation. This type of bloat is secondary or free gas bloat.

Normally, gas from metabolic activities is expelled through the blood stream to the lungs and removed by eructation or belching. If this is prevented from happening, the resulting distension or bloat puts pressure on the diaphragm and can result in death either due to asphyxiation or shock.

Symptoms of this condition are ruminal distension, discomfort or uneasiness, difficult breathing and even sudden death.

Preventive measures involve avoiding overfeeding of animals with cereals and spraying suspected pastures with oils.

Treatment can be done by administration of anti-foaming agents, use of stomach tubes to expel the gas, trocharization and rumenotomy. However, treatment must be carried out by a trained personnel preferably a veterinarian.

b. Pregnancy Toxaemia (Ketosis)

Pregnancy toxaemia is an acute metabolic disorder of ruminants. Even though it is essentially a hypocalcaemic condition characterized by accumulation of ketone bodies in the blood, it has it’s in the abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, which occurs at the final stage of pregnancy.

Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases of Livestock and Control

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This condition occurs late in pregnancy or soon after calving, lambing or kidding and in early lactation. This condition is common with twin pregnancies or large single lambs.

More specifically, this disease is due to a lack of glucose as an energy source, either from poor nutrition, excessive demand from multiple fetuses, or a combination of the two.

Symptoms vary with individual animals but they include anorexia, depression, recumbency and death may follow. Treatment is usually aimed at correcting the energy deficiency, the electrolyte imbalance and re- hydration. Pregnant animals must be adequately fed and given proper hygienic practices.

c. Parturient Paresis (Milk fever)

This is a condition that occurs in ruminants just before or after parturition. This occurs as a result of insufficient calcium in the diet of the pregnant animal to meet foetal needs or milk production soon after parturition.

This condition is more common in ewes since ewes’ milk contain more calcium than that of the cow.

The symptoms are weakness, stiff gait, hyperactivity and lateral recumbency. The condition can be prevented by ensuring that pregnant animals receive adequate amounts of calcium in the diet. Treatment is by intravenous administration calcium.

2. Nutritional Diseases

In order to achieve maximum production from ruminant animals, they must be provided with adequate nutrients and these include proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, minerals and water.

In practical terms, nutrition can be inadequate, either through being insufficient (under-nutrition) or inappropriately balanced in relation to the animal needs (malnutrition). It is also possible to have situations where ruminants receive too few nutrients that are incorrectly balanced.

Nutritional diseases are basically deficiencies in nutrients. Deficiency diseases are important not only because they reduce productivity but because they can trigger off infectious diseases by causing reduced resistance, or providing the basis of pica that drives ruminants to come in contact with soil borne infections. Examples of these deficiencies include, copper, Sodium, Iron and vitamins.

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