Causes of bovines
Introduction
Bovines is commonly known as mad cow disease. It is a fatal disease that progresses slowly and degenerates the nerve system and the spinal cord of an adult cow at the age of five or six. Bovines has very long incubation periods of about two year to eight years. When a cow starts to show the symptoms of bovines, it is usually advanced and the cow is likely to die in two months. Bovines can be transmitted to human being through consumption of the digestive parts of an infected cow. A farm owner who keeps cattle should look out for the common symptoms that affect the health of a cow and seek assistance when the symptoms seem to last for more than a day.
Causes of bovines
Bovines is caused by an infectious protein that resembles a virus and is known as prion. The prion are found in the central nerves tissues, small intestines and tonsils of a cow. The prions enter the cow's body through feeding on contaminated foods that contain animal proteins especially from the sheep and cows. The following are factors that trigger prion.
Winter dysentery: during the winter season, the dairy cows tend to have symptoms like explosive diarrhea that may be contagious, loss of appetite and listlessness.
Bovine viral diarrhea: there are many types of bovine diarrhea and all of them are contagious. The symptoms of bovine diarrhea include; fever, diarrhea that contains mucus and blood, yellow pus from the nose and eyes. The blood in the diarrhea may contain traces of prion.
Salt poisoning: if a cow fails to get enough water, it results too diarrhea, drooling, coordination difficulties and vomiting.
Change in diet: diet changes in cows should be slow and gradual hence they result to diarrhea.
Salmonella: result from eating contaminated food. It mainly attacks the cows that feed together in a very small place.
Symptoms of bovines
The symptoms that a bovines infected cow exhibits are as follows;
- Aggressive behavior
- Nervousness
- Coordination difficulties
- Troubled balancing and standing
- Weight loss
- Reduced milk production
- Diarrhea
- Dehydration
- Change in temperature
- Weakness
- Increased startle reflex
- Dementia
Diagnosis of bovines
The diagnosis of bovines in cows is done by identifying the symptoms that are stated above. During the incubation period, it is difficult to diagnose bovine since it barely exhibits any symptoms. The brain of a dead cow is examined for a moth eaten appearance in the brain tissue that confirms bovines.
So far, there is no treatment for bovines since it is caused by prion a virus that is not alive. The body of a cow does not have any viral immune attack against prion. However, prion can be denatured at very high temperatures or with very strong chemicals that are not steady with animal life hence no treatment of bovines.
Bovines can be prevented by not feeding the cattle on materials that are from the slaughtered animals, avoid the introduction of a new cow to the other cattle if you are not sure of its origin, isolation of the infected animals and the destruction of all the infected animals. Some countries have introduced surveillance programs where the cattle are tested for bovines through brain test.
