Control measures for some important and unusual goat diseases in southern Africa

The paper comprises an overview of important or unusual goat diseases occurring in southern Africa, with the emphasis on current effective disease control measures and recent developments in this field. The diseases are dealt with under four headings: (1) Infections; (2) Parasites; (3) Plants and nutrition; (4) Genetic and other conditions. In each section, the following are given more prominence: (1) Heartwater, certain clostridial diseases, pasteurellosis, abscessation and orf; (2) Haemonchosis, coccidiosis and certain ectoparasites; (3) Redgut and phytobezoars; (4) Abortions, postnatal mortality, exposure, predation and swelling disease. The major diseases of helminthosis and heartwater are dealt with at greater length. Helminth control currently concentrates on individual treatment of badly affected goats, rather than mass treatment. This lowers the selection rate for worms resistant to anthelmintics. A break with the old policy of “treat-all-and-move” is advocated for the same reason. The use of the FAMACHA© system (clinical anaemia evaluation) for haemonchosis control in goats is explained and the potential of body condition scoring for identifying animals heavily infected with other pathogenic helminths is highlighted. Replacement of highly resistant worm populations by a dilution method is outlined and several practical measures for managing worms in goats are given. The control of heartwater is determined by epidemiological and risk factors, comprising those affecting the vector (climate, season, vegetation, wild reservoir hosts, tick control), the organism (strain virulence, infection rate of vectors), and the host (species, age, breed, genetic resistance and immune status). In circumstances of very low infection risk, surveillance and treatment is recommended. In higher risk situations, strict tick control or zero grazing may be the best option. In endemic areas, immunity is the preferred and most reliable approach. This is achieved by exposure to infected ticks, vaccination and animal selection. Details of these options and their practical implementation are given. © 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.