Sarcoptosis or sarcoptosis of pigs is a sporadic disease, manifested by itching and inflammation of the skin. The causative agent of the disease is mites. He has a tortoise-shaped body with bristles and numerous spikes. The parasite penetrates the skin of the ears, head, and abdomen. Its moves can be found on the medial side of the hips.
Scabies mite
In pig sarcoptosis, female ticks are a danger. For a day they are able to lay up to eight eggs. Five days later, small ticks hatch from them. The life cycle of parasites is from six to eight weeks. During this time, one female is able to lay about a hundred eggs.
Adult individuals are very small, they are not easy to see with the naked eye. Their body is oval, flattened, up to 0.5 mm long. The legs are thick and short. Males are smaller than females. In females, the first four pairs of legs have funnel-shaped suction cups. On the other limbs, where there are no suction cups, the bristles are located.
Ticks are an intradermal parasite. In the surface layers of the epidermis, they make moves, eating tissue juices and skin cells. In these moves, the females lay their eggs. A few days later, eight-legged teleonymphs and protonymphs appear from them. They are selected on the surface of the skin for replication. At this stage of development, mating occurs. Then they move to other areas of the skin and make new moves, molt, turning into full-fledged ticks.
In the external environment, ticks live for about two weeks. If during this time they do not find a “victim”, then they die. At a temperature of -5 ° C, this occurs during the day. At a temperature of 50 degrees, the parasites die in forty minutes, and at 80 degrees - instantly.
Causes
Infection with a tick-borne tick comes from sick pigs. Of particular danger are sows and boars, in which the disease proceeds without pronounced clinical manifestations.
Scabies is transmitted through care products, bedding, mice, rats, clothing of staff, with direct contact of pigs.
Most often, pathology is recorded among young animals in the fall and winter. If animals are kept in unsanitary conditions, then parasites can become infected at any time of the year. However, in the summer period, with live-in content, part of the ticks perishes in direct sunlight.
Based on this, veterinarians identify the following factors leading to the occurrence of an ailment:
- unsanitary conditions;
- high humidity in the pigsty;
- improper feeding;
- a large number of goals contained in a crowded version.
Etiology
With the help of a proboscis, ticks are introduced under the skin, making moves in it. Usually they bite where the hair comes out, because it is in these places that the epidermis is very thin. Due to trauma and exposure to the toxin, an inflammatory process begins involving the papillary and deeper layers. In the affected areas, small vesicles form. Then they burst. In their place, gray crusts, pustules form, pigs itch.
In places of inflammation, the skin thickens, stubble is lost, folds appear. With damage to the auricles, cartilage necrosis is observed. With the development of the disease, part or all of the shell disappears.
Extensive lesions in sarcoptosis of pigs can cause a violation of skin respiration, oxygen deficiency appears. All this leads to a violation of the protective function of the body, as a result, the animal dies.
Symptomatology
The most susceptible to sarcoptosis of pigs are young individuals under the age of five months. Animals from five months to a year get sick less often.
The first clinical signs appear two weeks after infection. In places where the tick penetrates under the skin, redness of the skin is observed, body temperature rises, itching occurs. The pathological process quickly spreads to other parts of the body.
In young pigs, on the surface of the auricle and lower abdomen there are multiple foci of red-brown color, with a diameter of up to two centimeters, in which a cluster of ticks is concentrated.
As the pathology develops, nodules, pustules, crusts can be detected. In advanced cases, bristles fall out, hyperkeratosis develops. Sometimes there is a generalized form of sarcoptosis, the symptoms and treatment of which are more severe, since it affects the whole body.
Affected piglets lose their appetite, they begin to lag behind in growth, and they lose much in weight. Often young growth perishes. This is due to necrotic damage to the skin and auricles. Sarcoptosis can become chronic when piglets reach six months of age. Ticks can persist in certain areas of the skin. In adults, a chronic form of the disease can be detected only with a thorough examination.
Diagnosis
When making a diagnosis, other types of skin diseases, such as eczema, leptospirosis, and lichen, are excluded. Finally, sarcoptosis is confirmed by laboratory tests. For analysis, scraping of the deep layers of the epidermis is taken. The material is examined under a small magnification of the microscope.
Treatment
It is best to slaughter pigs that have had the disease, and to disinfect the pigsty and herd.
For treatment, spraying or bathing in a two percent solution of chlorophos, 1.5% trichloromethaphos, 3.2% of the SK-9 preparation is used. Also used for therapy is TAP-85, creolin in the form of a one percent emulsion.
During processing, it is necessary to carefully irrigate the ears of the animal, especially from the inside. In the presence of hyperkeratosis in pigs, the affected areas are treated with 3% chlorophos liniment. Ten days later, the treatment is repeated.
The crusts are softened and removed. For this purpose, use a soap solution with the addition of creolin. For the treatment of sarcoptosis, Neostomazan is used.
Slaughter of pigs after chlorophos is allowed in ten days, when using creolin - in two months.
Neostomazan
The drug is intended for the destruction of ecoparasites parasitizing on cattle, ISS, cats, dogs, pigs.
Method of application "Neostomazana" - washing the animal with a solution. The solution is prepared at the rate of 10 grams of the drug per 10 liters of water. The resulting composition is sprayed with pigs. Ten days later, the treatment is repeated.
Subject to the method of use of Neostomazan, no side effects are observed.
Slaughter for meat is allowed one week after the last treatment of pigs.
Prevention
Sarcoptosis is easier to prevent than to treat. To prevent pathology, it is necessary to strictly observe the conditions for keeping pigs in the pigsty, as well as conduct systematic examinations of the entire population. When identifying sick individuals, they are isolated. Quarantine in the pigsty lasts a month. At the same time, acaricides must be treated with a break of one week.
All animals that have been in contact with diseased individuals are treated with special drugs. The room, care items, walks are disinfected.
It is possible to remove the pig population from the problematic farm only three months after the complete recovery of the last sick piglet and upon receipt of negative laboratory tests.
Maintaining sanitary and epidemiological standards in the pigsty, daily manure cleaning, periodic disinfection, litter change and processing of feeders will allow to grow a healthy livestock of pigs.