Goat Diseases and Treatments Good
Goat Diseases and Treatments Good
Goat Diseases and Treatments Good
ESTOCK UPG
LIV RA
R
O
DI
F
NG
E
AIN ALLIANC
AND
EMPOW
CH
ER
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LU
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VA VALUE T
Promoting Zimbabw
e’s Go s
at and Pork Value Chain
DI
F
NG
E
AIN ALLIANC
AND
EMPO
H
W
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LU
EN
VA VALUE T
Promoting Zimbabw
e’s Go s
at and Pork Value Chain
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 3
4 PRESENTATION METHODOLOGY 4
5 ASSESSMENT 4
Unit One: 5
6 PREVENTION OF DISEASE AT FARM LEVEL 5
6.1 Objectives 5
6.2 Outcomes 5
6.3 Introduction 5
6.4 Causes of goat diseases 5
6.5 Some of the signs of ill health 6
6.6 Most common goat health challenges 6
6.7 Control of tick Borne diseases 6
6.8 Consequences of ill health 7
6.9 Disease prevention and control 9
6.10 Keeping goats healthy 9
6.11 Health strategies 9
6.12 Biosecurity 10
6.12.1 On-farm biosecurity measures 10
6.12.2 Risk factors 10
6.12.3 Biosecurity elements 10
6.12.4 Examples of biosecurity implementation 11
6.12.5 Disinfection facilities/procedure(s) 12
6.12.6 Storage of medication, administration, expiry dates and
withdrawal periods 12
6.13 Activity 19
7 REFERENCES 20
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
List of Tables
List of Figures
Figure 6-1: Abnormal head position and recumbency in a very sick goat 5
Figure 6-2: A doe with orf virus disease 6
Figure 6-3: Ticks can cause health problems in Zimbabwe 6
Figure 6-4: A buck in a poor body condition and ill health 7
Figure 6-5: A goat kid with diarroea and potbelly, signs of ill health 7
Figure 6-6: A doe showing signs of mange 7
Figure 6-7: Foot wound, can be a result of tick infestation 7
Figure 6-8: Illustrations of goat in good goat conformation and one to
avoid with sighs of poor health Adopted from ATTRA. 8
Figure 6-9: The interaction of the components of the triangle can affect the
course of disease 9
Figure 6-10 Syringes and needles commonly used in giving injectable
medications 12
Figure 6-11: Injection sites for goats 13
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
1 INTRODUCTION
Preventive medicine is the cheapest way of reducing animal health cost. Animal health
cost is the most important factor in goat production. Huge economic losses are
experienced due to diseases, accounting for more than 50% of flock mortalities in
smallholder goat farming enterprises. Productivity of the goats depends entirely on
the health status of the animal, which in turn is affected by disease control and
prevention strategies on the farm. This manual should help farmers to effectively
identify signs of ill – health in goats both at herd and individual animal level. It will also
give highlights of diseases.
This training manual is intended to serve as a guide for the trainers. Some goat farmers
are not implementing the necessary disease prevention and control methods in their
goat production business. This is severely affecting the growth and profitability of
their business. High mortality rates in both young and mature animals thus affecting
the availability of goat ready for market.
This module is a training tool for developing the capacities of enterprises in practices
of good disease prevention and control strategies. The target group is the small to
medium farmers (including young and women farmers), lead farmers (anchor,
champion), farmer groups, Business Management Unit (BMU), syndicate or
cooperatives and integrators, who will be trained in this program to enhance their skills
at individual and organizational levels. The trainees are expected to utilize the skills in
their respective activities in the Goat Value Chains. Improved disease prevention and
control strategies will enhance and contribute to the overall growth and development
of goat value chains in the country.
The session should be interactive, participatory, lively and interesting. Let the
participants express themselves in vernacular Language for them to understand the
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
concepts. Encourage them to ask questions especially on concepts that they don’t
understand. Switch to either English or vernacular language when you find some or all
of them do not understand you in one of the languages.
Start the session with greetings, welcoming remarks, and introduce yourself. Ensure
you have the necessary stationeries for the trainees, equipment and materials:
projector, flip charts or whiteboard, whiteboard markers, marking pens, and handouts.
Be time conscious as you facilitate the Session
This Manual is organised around aspects of goat disease prevention and control such
as environmental disease prevention, biosecurity issues, cleaning of goat houses,
injection sites, kids and adult goats problems and diseases. The manual also suggests
a vaccination programme to be followed at farm level to reduce chances of disease
condition developing in goats.
4 PRESENTATION METHODOLOGY
The methods of presentation outlined in the manual are suggested as a guide to the
facilitator. The facilitator is expected to use his or her judgement in selecting the
appropriate method or combination of methods in presenting each session.
5 ASSESSMENT
At the end of each session, the facilitator is expected to assess/evaluate the
participants' understanding and level of knowledge by using a simple question and
answer session as appropriate. Some assessment questions are suggested as
activities whilst in some, the facilitator to make own discretion in determining the kind
of questions to be asked.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
Unit One:
> To help learners define and identify disease and their causes.
> To help learners develop models for disease control.
> To help learners to set up a road map to achieve performance targets.
6.2 Outcomes
6.3 Introduction
> There are many causes of ill health in goats. The following list covers most if
not all causes of goat diseases.
o Viruses o Poisons
o Protozoa. o Physical injuries
o Bacteria. o Nutritional disorders.
o Fungi. o Nutritional deficiencies.
o Helminthes o Stress due to adverse
o External parasites (ticks, environment
mosquitoes and manges) o Genetic problems.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
> The most common disease bedevilling the goat production enterprises in
communal goat production are;
o Tick borne diseases (Heart water, Gall sickness, and Red water
disease)
o Pulpy kidney
o Mange
o Pneumonia
o Helminthosis
o Coccidiossis
o And for more diseases refer to Table and Table 1-2
o Nutritional disorders and
o Orf virus disease (see Figure 6-2)
> Main diseases are Heart-water. Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis
> Usually associated with poor tick control or incorrect use of acaricides.
Figure 6-2: A doe with orf virus disease Figure 6-3: Ticks can cause health
problems in Zimbabwe
6.7 Control of tick Borne diseases
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
Figure 6-4: A buck in a poor body Figure 6-5: A goat kid with diarrhoea
condition and ill health and potbelly, signs of ill health
Figure 6-6: A doe showing signs of mange Figure 6-7: Foot wound, can be a result
of tick infestation
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
Figure 6-8: Illustrations of goat in good goat conformation and one to avoid with
signs of poor health Adopted from ATTRA.
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AGENT/PATHOGEN
Characteristics
Toxicity, virulence, infertility
Susceptibility to antibiotics
Ability to survive outside the body
Interventions
Eradicate
Genetically modify
Interventions Interventions
Protect, Educate and Remove breeding ground
Alter exposure Improve sanitation
HOST ENVIRONMENT
Characteristics DISEASE Characteristics
Age, Prior exposure, Climate, Physical structure,
Susceptibility, Co-infection Population density,
and Immune Social structure
Interventions Interventions
Treat, Isolate, Housing quality,
Interventions
Immunize, Sanitation, clean water,
Educate,
Nutrition Preventive services
Change activity patterns,
Quarantine
Figure 6-9: The interaction of the components of the triangle can affect the course
of disease
> Farmers and stockmen should know how to prevent, control and treat animal
diseases through farm health planning and close working with vets.
> As a farmer, you have to prevent the spread of disease - between animals, from
animals to humans, and from humans to animals.
> The general strategy to prevent outbreaks of clinical disease is to minimize the
level of pathogen challenge while maximizing herd and individual immunity.
> Poor management might result in a population of animals with naive immune
systems encountering novel pathogens or in stress leading to a weakened
immune system in vulnerable animals.
> Alternatively, management errors might result in an overwhelming pathogen
challenge in the case of an endemic disease or the entry of a new pathogen into
a population of goats without specific immunity.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
> First, those designed to live with endemic diseases caused by pathogens that
survive in the environment and are too difficult to eliminate, or they are
ubiquitous organisms that generally cause little problem.
o Endemic pathogens are handled by maximizing immunity and
minimizing the challenge.
o Ubiquitous organisms cause disease flare-ups that are often triggered
by environmental-management deficiencies, which if corrected will
restore the healthy state in the herd.
> Second, some pathogens can be eliminated e.g. Sarcoptes scabiei var. caprae
(Mange mites) can be eliminated from a herd.
o It is usually desirable in the long-term to eliminate the diseases, if
possible and if it results in savings from reduced routine medication or
vaccination.
> Third, include strategies to prevent pathogens from entering the herd.
o As herd size has increased, the emphasis on maintaining the population
of animals free of certain diseases has increased in importance.
> Some diseases are classified as notifiable, which means that if you suspect an
animal has one of these diseases you must inform your Division of Veterinary
Field Services (DVS) Office and other relevant government offices immediately.
6.12 Biosecurity
> Biosecurity refers to practices used to prevent both the introduction and the
spread of diseases within a farm.
> Disease control through biosecurity focuses on controlling and reducing
movements of animals, people and vehicles to and from areas where livestock is
kept.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
6.12.3.2 Isolation
> Creating and maintaining an environment where animals are separated from
disease agents or potential carriers such as animals, humans, contaminated
clothes and equipment, contaminated air, water and feed.
> Protection from vectors - for example, ticks, flies, mosquitos may be a
consideration for some diseases.
6.12.3.4 Zoning
> Biosecurity zoning depends on risk factors of disease transmission,
transmission to other animals or officers (zoonosis).
> Infection risks can be high or low.
> Especially in areas with Foot and Mouth disease
✓ Washing hands with soap, taking bath and washing clothes after
handling animals
✓ Cleaning and disinfecting (spraying, dipping) all goods, particularly
vehicles that will enter farm area
✓ Spraying pens with insecticide or disinfectant where indicated
✓ Disposing and burning medical waste after investigating the incident
site.
✓ Limiting disease transmission caused by employee mobility and
restricting people from freely entering the farm as it may cause disease
transmission.
✓ Burning or burying carcass of livestock that died after suffering from
diseases, infectious diseases in particular
✓ Removing dead livestock from the pen immediately to be buried or
eliminated by the authorized officers
✓ Using a quarantine pen to monitor goats that just arrived on a farm
✓ Separating sick animals from healthy; rearing species separately,
separate age cohorts.
✓ Treating sick animals
✓ Regular cleaning and manure/litter removal
✓ Good husbandry, low stress, good nutrition, clean water
✓ Vaccinating animals - Vaccination is a key health management tool to
enhance individual and herd immunity.
> It is a good idea to work with a veterinarian because the decision to use a
vaccine depends on several factors and needs to be assessed and frequently
reassessed on an individual herd basis.
> It is important to remember that even in healthy and well-nourished young
animals, some just do not respond to vaccinations.
> Young animals that are sick, stressed, wormy or poorly nourished will respond
poorly to a vaccination program.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
6.12.5.1 Disinfection
> As animal husbandry housing and goat population grows so does the risk of the
outbreak of contagious diseases.
> Disinfectants can be used to disinfect animal housing to reduce the pathogen
load in the premises.
> Read the instructions that come with the product you purchase, they contain
important information about using it such as dosing rates, whether it is safe for
pregnant animals as well as how it should be stored.
Figure 6-10 Syringes and needles commonly used in giving injectable medications
> Plastic needles and syringes are disposable – in other words, meant to be used
only once. Syringes and needles come in different sizes.
> 5ml syringe for adult goats and a 2,5ml syringe for kids (see Figure 6-10).
> Shorter syringes are used for vaccination.
> When vaccinating, you can use a syringe more than once, but you must fill it
using a new needle so as not to contaminate the vaccine in the bottle.
> For injecting drugs and vaccines, sites shown in Figure 6-11 are supposed to be
used. Injecting in other sites may affect the quality of meat.
> However, it should be noted that drug administration should be carried out by a
qualified person, e.g. paravet or veterinarian
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
Intramuscular in the
neck region
Intravenous
injections
Subcutaneous
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
Table 1-1: Diseases of young goats, their prevention, control and treatment.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
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Table 1-2 Diseases of adult goats their prevention, control and treatment
Orf Wart-like sores on the Spray the affected areas Isolation of diseased animals
animal’s lips and nose and with an iodine spray Vaccination of all lambs and kids
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
around the mouth of daily. Hard scabs can when the females have stopped
especially young lambs and be softened with lambing for the season.
kids and on the teats of their Vaseline or glycerine to
mothers. make it easier for the
animals to eat.
Footrot Lameness Iodine spray to the Keep sheds clean. Footbath containing
hoofs (between the 10% zinc sulphate solution. The goats
claws). must be made to stand in the footbath
An appropriate for a period of 5 minutes. Keep
antibiotic affected goats separate from the rest of
the flock to prevent spread.
Excessive hoof Trimming Regular hoof tri mming.
growth Avoid excessively sandy pastures
Limping Swelling in the foot that is Open and drain the Regularly check your goats’ feet for
associated with hot, red and painful. abscess when it has a ticks, especially the ones that are
abscesses Sometimes, they burst open yellow spot on it or limping.
and ooze pus. when it softens.
Apply an acaricide to
kill the ticks.
Bloat The animal’s stomach Drench with cooking Goats must be introduced gradually to
swells. oil (50 ml) or bloat green lucerne and given large
Animals become guard. Do not let it lie quantities of hay before grazing
uncomfortable and may lie down. If it is down, get lucerne for a short while.
down and cannot breathe and it back on its feet and Maize may also cause bloat. Make
may die. make it walk around sure there is no wire or plastic lying
until it has burped. In around where animals graze.
very bad cases stab the
bulging area with sharp
pointed knife to let air
escape.
Abortion Loss of a foetus at some Generally, no t reatment The first step is to keep records of how
stage in the pregnancy. required unless there many goats are aborting (as a
are complications. percentage of the herd) and when they
are aborting in order to try and identify
the real cause of the problem (whether
food or disease).
Black Fever, loss of appetite, - Vaccination.
Quarter/Quarter depression, stiff gait and
Evil reluctance to move due to
lameness, gaseous bubbles in
the muscles before death,
sometimes nose bleeding and
swelling of the head.
Pregnancy Depression and anorexia - Properly manage the weight.
Toxemia until the doe becomes too Overweight and excessively thin ewes
weak to stand. or does are at a higher risk for ketosis.
Feeding grains with increased energy
density during the third trimester, or
about six weeks prior to kidding, will
help to prevent pregnancy toxemia.
Providing higher quality hay is also a
good idea for gestating ewes or does.
Lactic Acidosis Discomfort, anorexia, teeth - High grain diets should be introduced
grinding, muscle twitching, slowly over a period of 10 to 14 days.
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
March
From 15 March breeding season
April/May Botulism
All animals Pasteurella
Quarter evil
June Tetanus (if kids are castrated Blue udder (1st inoculation)
Adult animals using rubber ring)
(not immunised before) (1st inoculation)
(6–8 weeks before kidding) Vitamins A, D, E
Deworm
All animals
July Tetanus (if kids are castrated
Adult animals using rubber ring)
(not immunised before) (2nd inoculation)
(2-4 weeks before kidding) Vitamins A, D, E
Pasteurella
August Pasteurella
Kids (2 weeks old) Vitamins A, D, E
Heart water (in heart water area)
September Enterotoxaemia (alum) Pasteurella
All animals Deworm Pasteurella
Kids (6 weeks old)
October Deworm
All animals
6.13 Activity
> Task 1: Farmers should clean goat house as a group under training
> Task 2: Discuss experiences with regards to biosecurity
> Task 3: Demonstrator to help farmers under training to identify site of
injecting different drugs and antibiotics
> Discuss common health problems in your area
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Goat Disease Control and Animal Health Care Training Manual
7 REFERENCES
1. https://www.kzndard.gov.za/images/latest-
news/Swine%20Biosecurity%20mearsures.pdf
2. https://www.nda.agric.za/docs/Infopaks/goats.pdf
3. http://wiki.isikhnas.com/w/DiseaseInvestigation:Course_Manual
4. https://cultivationofcrops.blogspot.com/2016/08/biosecurity-how-to-
practice-biosecurity.html
5. https://www.dummies.com/home-garden/hobby-farming/raising-
goats/common-vaccinations-for-goats/
6. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1f/37/a2/1f37a216a6a934a83d40683100
4c08cd.png
7. http://wiki.isikhnas.com/w/DiseaseInvestigation:Course_Manual
8. https://www.angoras.co.za/article/when-to-vaccinate-update#354
9. https://practicalfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Pig-Health-in-a-
Pasture_Handout.pdf
10. https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/farm-basics/how-to-livestock/injecting-
animals-part-1/
11. http://wiki.isikhnas.com/w/DiseaseInvestigation:Course_Manual
12. http://www.theorganicfarmer.org/tag/managing-meat-goats/ accessed on
10 October 2020
13. https://www.magzter.com/article/Business/Stockfarm/From-Farmers-Wife-
To-Boer-Goat-Breeder-And-MentorTechnical proposal accessed on 10
october 2020
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IVESTOCK UPG
L RA
R
O
DI
F
NG
E
AIN ALLIANC
AND
EMPO
H
W
EC
ER
LU
EN
VA VALUE T
Promoting Zimbabw
e’s Go s
at and Pork Value Chain
NG
E
AIN ALLIANC
AND
EMPOW
H
EC
ER
LU
EN
VA VALUE T
Promoting Zimbabw
e’s Go s
at and Pork Value Chain
This publication has been produced with the financial support of the European Union.
Its contents are the sole responsibility of the VALUE project and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the European Union.