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Contagious Pleuropneumonia
Local names:
Luo: Athung'a / Kamba: kyambo / Kipsigis: chebwonit / Embu: kiviti / Gabbra: sombessa / Kikuyu: Rimunia / Maasai: olkipei, longishu, ol gibei, ol kibiei / Meru: mohir / Samburu: ikipei / Somali: sambab, harwein, agmar / Swahili: ugonjwa wa mapafu / Turkana: loukoi, lotai / Luvugusu: madjukhu / Nandi: chepuonit / Randile: ikipei /
Common names:
Peripneumonia, peripneumonie contagieuse (French) peripneumonia contagiosa (Spanish)
Description:
Zoonotic disease
Introduction
Contagious Pleuropneumonia

This is an infectious disease of cattle and goats which affects the lungs.
  • In cattle it is called "contagious bovine pleuropneumonia" (or CBPP)
  • in goats "contagious caprine pleuropneumonia" (or CCPP).

Contagious pleuropneumonia is caused by Mycoplasma mycoides variety mycoides. The disease is wide spread in the semi arid Sub Saharan Africa, particularly running from West Africa to the horn of Africa. It also occurs in India, China, and South East Asia. It does not occur in USA, Australia and South Africa.

Transmission
The disease is transmitted between animals by inhalation of droplets expelled by infected animals. The causative agent does not survive for long in the open environment hence direct contacts is essential for transmission. Incubation period takes a minimum of 7 days to several weeks after infection. Infection spreads faster where the animals are crowded e.g. in houses, stable, market and during transportation. Lungers (clinically normal group of animals in the herd) are important source of infection in the herd- especially when they are stressed.
Contagious pleuropneumonia can kill from 60 to 100% of the herd.

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Signs of Contagious Pleuropneumonia

Checking temperature using a thermometer
© William Ayako, Kari Naivasha
Incubation varies from 3 - 6 weeks but can extend up to six months.
  • High fever
  • Lack of appetite; the animals are tired and weak
  • Rough hair
  • Painful, fast, breathingbecomes distressed often with painful cough
  • Grunting where the animals breathes out
  • The animals stand with their head lowered and neck stretched, back arched and with their elbows spread pointed outwards to take off pressure from the lungs. If forced to move, the animal has a dry cough that turns moist
  • The animals will often stand facing the wind to allow in more air in the lungs
  • In very severe cases, a thick yellow discharge comes from the nose and there is a swelling under the chest.
  • The animals lose condition and death may occur after 2 or 3 weeks. Those animals who recover remain carriers of the disease and are dangerous for the healthy animals in the herd.
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Prevention - Control - Treatment
  • Vaccination. There are developed control programmes in most countries and farmers are encouraged to support, cooperate and work with those programmes. Vaccines against CBPP are used in such control programmes. The control programmes usually start with vaccinating twice per year then once year. In developed countries, control programmes usually aim at test and slaughter of all infected animals.
  • Separate sick animals from healthy ones.
  • Common traditional practices
    • Somali: Boil the lungs from the animals that have died from this disease and cut them into very small pieces. Make a 1 cm long cut in the tip of the ear of a healthy animal and insert a thin piece of lung under the skin. Rub the place so that the piece stays under the skin. Use one piece for each cow.
    • Samburu: Burn and grind the lung of an animal that has died of the disease. Make a cut in the outer side of the ear and put the lung powder on the cut.
    • Maasai: Collect the blood from an animal that has died from this disease and dry it in the sun. Crush the dried blood to powder and mix with urine from another sick animal. Drench animals with this mixture.
    • Maasai: Boil in water meat from an animal that has died from the disease. Give the soup to healthy animals to drink.
(Source: ITDG and IIRR, 1996)

Recommended treatment
It is not advisable to treat animals for CBPP. Treated animals with antibiotics will recover but remain carriers of the disease. The carriers will make it difficult to get rid of the disease. Ask the veterinary for help.
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Information Source Links
  • Barber, J., Wood, D.J. (1976) Livestock management for East Africa: Edwar Arnold (Publishers) Ltd 25 Hill Street London WIX 8LL
  • Blood, D.C., Radostits, O.M. and Henderson, J.A. (1983) Veterinary Medicine - A textbook of the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Goats and Horses. Sixth Edition - Bailliere Tindall London. ISBN: 0702012866
  • Blowey, R.W. (1986). A Veterinary book for dairy farmers: Farming press limited Wharfedale road, Ipswich, Suffolk IPI 4LG
  • Force, B. (1999). Where there is no Vet. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands. ISBN 978-0333-58899-4.
  • Hall, H.T.B. (1985). Diseases and parasites of Livestock in the tropics. Second Edition. Longman Group UK. ISBN 0582775140
  • Hunter, A. (1996). Animal health: General principles. Volume 1 (Tropical Agriculturalist) - Macmillan Education Press. ISBN: 0333612027
  • Hunter, A. (1996). Animal health: Specific Diseases. Volume 2 (Tropical Agriculturalist) - Macmillan Education Press. ISBN:0-333-57360-9
  • ITDG and IIRR (1996). Ethnoveterinary medicine in Kenya: A field manual of traditional animal health care practices. Intermediate Technology Development Group and International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, Nairobi, Kenya. ISBN 9966-9606-2-7.
  • Pagot, J. (1992). Animal Production in the Tropics and Subtropics. MacMillan Education Limited London
  • The Organic Farmer magazine No. 50 July 2009
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Checking temperature using a thermometer
© William Ayako, Kari Naivasha