Brucellosis , or Bang ’s disease , is a disease of Bos taurus caused byBrucella abortus . It ’s a public wellness worry because it is zoonotic — it can be shared by animals , including sheep , water buffalo , fuzz , deer and elk , elk , equid , camelids , marine animals , canines , and human being .
In cows , undulant fever causes abortion ; in humans it causes undulatory fever , a precondition that get and rifle like malaria . The first sign of infection in cows is miscarriage or birth of weak sura , typically between the fifth and 7th calendar month . Other signs include lower fertility and poor invention rates ( the most prominent sign in all animals ) , retained afterbirth , and enlarged , arthritic joints . Even when calves are born good for you , the septic cow still harbour and sheds the disease . Once the cow is infect , there is no way to bring around it . Animals become taint through breeding or consume polluted feed . The disease is shed in the infected animal ’s Milk River , aborted foetus and afterbirth .
In humans , the contagion can cause extreme joint pain , fever , depression and chronic fatigue . humankind can contract the disease by handling a cow ’s aborted fetus or afterbirth or by use up or drinking contaminated Milk River products such as unpasteurized milk or cheese from an septic cow . human being can be treated for the infection in effect with antibiotics ; however , they may still feel symptom of the disease .
In the 19th hundred , French pill roller and biologist Louis Pasteur recognized that heating milk to a minimal temperature of 161 degrees F for at least 15 seconds kill bothBrucellaand the agent that causes tuberculosis ; hence , we beganpasteurizing milk . In the 1950s , there was a adult push button to extinguish tuberculosis and brucellosis in livestock in the U.S. Today , brucellosis is well control , but bacteria have a way of life of reinventing themselves .
The biggest trouble today remains with the brucellosis - carry bison and elk in the greater Yellowstone domain , include the home park . They are not restricted to one area , so they migrate out of the parking lot and have the potential to taint domesticated kine , particularly on ranch in southern Montana and northwestern Wyoming .
Hobby farmers with cattle should still be concerned , and there is a simple vaccination called the brucellosis or Bang ’s vaccine . In many states , such as California , body politic law requires a one - time vaccination to every calf before it is 11 month old . After the animal is vaccinated , it ’s give a mandatory tattoo and an optional pinna tag ( called the Bang ’s rag ) to show it has been vaccinated .
Brucella melitensis , one of three strain ofBrucellafound only in laughingstock and transmissible to mankind , make abortion in goats and Malta fever , a condition worse than undulatory fever , in man . It ’s always a undecomposed idea to have your veterinarian take a blood sample to check for Brucella melitensis before preface a new brute to the herd , because the most uncouth method of spread out the disease is through contact with new , unseasoned livestock . If the newbies were born on your property and your farm ’s been disease - liberal , it ’s not that big of a business deal . Unfortunately , no vaccine in the United States or Canada protects againstBrucella melitensis .
— John Maas , DVM , MS , DACVIM , veterinarian and beef Bos taurus specialist for the University of California , Davis Cooperative Extension
This clause originally appear in the September / October 2011 issue ofHobby Farms .
