Diseases of Cattle in the Tropics

Most of the future increase in livestock production is expected to occur in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Cattle are the most numerous of the ruminant species in the tropics and provide the largest quantity of animal food products. More than one-third of the world's cattle are found in the tropics. Disease is the major factor which prohibits full utilization of these regions for cattle production. Various infectious and transmissible viral, rick ettsial, bacterial, and particularly protozoan and helminthic diseases, are widespread in the tropics and exert a heavy toll on the existing cattle industry there. This uncontrolled disease situation also discourages investment in cattle industries by private and government sectors. In Africa alone, it is estimated that 125 million head of cattle could be accommodated in the tropical rainbelt if the disease and other animal husbandry factors could be resolved. The potential of efficient cattle production under more favorable conditions prompted various international agencies to establish a multi million dollar International Laboratory for Research in Animal Diseases (ILRAD) in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. In South America, principal sites for raising cattle are shifting to the savannah lands because the more fertile soils are being used for crop produc tion, however, in the savannahs also, disease remains the most powerful deterrent in implementing the cattle industry.

I: Special Topics.- 1. Characteristics of types and breeds of cattle in the tropics.- 2. The tropics and the world demand for animal protein.- 3. Effect of climate and management systems on production of cattle.- 4. Human-bovine ecosystems: reflections on zoonoses in the tropics.- 5. Epidemological approaches to disease control.- II: Infectious Diseases.- 6. Bovine papular stomatitis.- 7. Malignant catarrhal fever.- 8. Pseudorabies.- 9. Rabies.- 10. Foot and mouth disease.- 11. Rinderpest.- 12. Rift Valley fever.- 13. Lumpy skin disease and pseudo-lumpy skin disease.- 14. Ephemeral fever.- 15. Bovine viral diarrhea.- 16. Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis.- 17. Leptospirosis.- 18. Bovine genital vibriosis.- 19. Infectious keratoconjunctivitis.- 20. Blackleg and malignant edema.- 21. Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia.- 22. Brucellosis.- 23. Johne's disease (paratuberculosis).- 24. Tuberculosis.- 25. Anthrax.- 26. Tetanus and botulism.- 27. Anaplasmosis.- 28. Heartwater disease.- 29. Bovine petechial fever.- 30. Dermatophilosis.- 31. Coccidiosis.- 32. East coast fever.- 33. Theileria infections other than East Coast fever.- 34. Besnotiosis and globidiosis.- 35. Babesiosis.- 36. Bovine trypanosomiasis.- 37. Mycotic diseases.- 38. Metazoal diseases.- III: Diseases of Mixed Etiology or Lesser Frequency.- 39. The care of young calves, neonatal calf diarrhea, the calf pneumonias.- 40. Actinobacillosis, actinoomycosis, nocardiosis, eperythrozoonosis, hemobartonellosis, and trichomoniasis.- IV: Ticks and Environmental Effects.- 41. Tick toxicosis of cattle.- V: Problems of Disease Control in the Tropics.- 42. Problems of disease control in the tropics.- Toxic plants grouped by clinical signs and systems affected.- Index of subjects.