small ruminants
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
  • English
    • Français
    • Italiano
    • Español
    • Ελληνικα
Menu
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
  • English
    • Français
    • Italiano
    • Español
    • Ελληνικα
Search
Close

PREVENTION & CONTROL OF OEA: What must we do and not do?

  • August 2, 2020

Ovine enzootic abortion (OEA) was first reported in Scotland in 1936. Since then, the scientific community has been studying the behaviour of this bacteria. The goal is to set up a strategy to control and prevent this disease and reduce its economic impact. Here, you will find out what you need to do and what you must not do to control it.

 

Three types of measures have been established in the control and prevention of OEA:

MANAGEMENT MEASURES

These consist of preventing the transfer of animals without serological control, preventing contact of pregnant ewes with infected placentas or foetuses and keeping healthy flocks away from infected flocks.

Pregnant ewes: Management measures are crucial to control enzootic abortion
FIGURE 1: Management measures are crucial to control and prevent OEA: avoiding contact of pregnant ewes with abortion material, cleaning and disinfecting lambing pens.

These measures are not enough, given the difficulty of isolating the infected animals.

“Management measures are critical to controlling OEA and must be combined with vaccination“

 

USE OF ANTIBIOTICS

This type of measure, in the control of a C. abortus infection, is highly influenced by the intrinsic condition of chlamydia, such as obligate intracellular bacteria.

antibiotics
FIGURE 2: “Antibiotics: handle with care” (Source: www.euro.who.int)

Thus, despite being a bacterium sensitive to many antibiotics, high concentrations of the bacteria in blood are required in order to achieve successful therapeutic outcomes.

“Antibiotic therapy is economically unsustainable and unsuccessful”

This, along with the difficulty of predicting the time of the infection, makes the use of these measures, for certain periods of the pregnancy, economically unsustainable, and the inappropriate use of antibiotics could cause the infection to sub-clinically persist in the animal or the possible risk of developing resistance to antibiotics.

Cycle of Chlamydia abortus
FIGURE 3: Cycle of Chlamydia abortus (biphasic): infectious and resistant form (Elementary Body, EB); non-infective form (Reticular Body, RB). The recommended dosage of certain antibiotics (such as tetracyclines), is inferior to the dosage effective against Chlamydia abortus and it can cause resistances to antibiotics and the consequent persistence of infection in the flock.

“The use of antibiotics does not help in controlling OEA: infected animals will continue shedding and spreading the infection in the flock”

 

CONTROL ENZOOTIC ABORTION WITH VACCINATION

Active immunisation: the adequate vaccination of animals could control chlamydial abortion in sheep, given that the first exposure of small ruminants to C. abortus induces a protective immunity preventing reproductive problems after contact with this infectious agent.

“Vaccination is the best way of controlling OEA”

For this reason, vaccination is the most effective and important way of controlling and preventing enzootic abortion.

vaccine against OEA: control enzootic abortions
FIGURE 4: There are different types of vaccine against OEA.

At present, the main types of vaccines that have been developed, commercially or experimentally, against this disease are as follows:

 

Article written by:

María Rosa Caro, Jesús Salinas and Nieves Ortega, Department of Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Murcia. 30100 Murcia, Spain.

 

Previous Post

CLINICAL MASTITIS: Those we can see

Next Post

ABORTIONS IN SMALL RUMINANTS: Important points

Related Posts

How can we reduce the use of antibiotics for mastitis?

How can we reduce the use of antibiotics for mastitis?

December 13, 2022

Antibiotics are often necessary to treat infections, but poor practices can cause the emergence of resistance. Mastitis is a disease...

Understanding Chlamydia abortus: How does the disease present?

Understanding Chlamydia abortus: How does the disease present?

November 21, 2022

Chlamydia abortus is the pathogen that causes ovine enzootic abortion, a disease of great economic importance globally. In 2019, an...

CATEGORIES

  • Antibiotic reduction
  • Field experience
  • Footrot
  • Mastitis
  • Other Goats, Sheep and Lamb Diseases
  • Reproductive
  • Respiratory

NEWSLETTER

DON’T MISS ANY UPDATES ON SMALL RUMINANTS

I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Basic information on Data Protection.


ASK THE EXPERTS

Your opinion is very important to us, so we encourage you to contact our team of experts on Small Ruminants to ask any questions or discuss any concerns you may have about sheep, goats and lambs health prevention.

I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Basic information on Data Protection.


Next Post
Management measures for controlling Ovine enzootic abortions in sheep and goats

ABORTIONS IN SMALL RUMINANTS: Important points

small ruminants

Follow us

Linkedin
Youtube
Categories
  • Antibiotic reduction
  • Field experience
  • Footrot
  • Mastitis
  • Other Goats, Sheep and Lamb Diseases
  • Reproductive
  • Respiratory

Pages

  • Blog
  • Videos
  • About us
  • Contact

HIPRA ©2023 All rights reserved

  • Cookie policy
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
Menu
  • Cookie policy
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
This website uses its own cookies and those of third parties to improve our services and navigation. By clicking on Accept you consent our use of all these cookies. You can also opt to change your settings. For more information, see our Cookie policy.

ACCEPT ALL COOKIES Cookies configuration
Política de cookies

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
Domain: undefined
Description: This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category \"Necessary\".
Duration: 1 year 1 day 1 hour
Type: Necessary

cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
Domain: .aboutsmallruminants.com
Description: This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category \"Necessary\".
Duration: 1 year 19 days 15 hours 19 minutes
Type: Necessary

cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary
Domain: .aboutsmallruminants.com
Description: This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category \'\'Non-necessary\'\'.
Duration: 1 year 19 days 15 hours 19 minutes
Type: Necessary
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

_ga
Domain: .aboutsmallruminants.com
Description: This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site\'s analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
Duration: 1 year 20 days 8 hours 51 minutes
Type: Analytics

_ga_CDFH4BHCQC
Domain: .aboutsmallruminants.com
Description: No description.
Duration: 1 year 19 days 15 hours 19 minutes
Type: Other
SAVE & ACCEPT

Basic Personal Data Protection information:

Controller: LABORATORIOS HIPRA, S.A.
Purposes: Managing the contractual and/or business relationship with HIPRA, including sending news, promotions and invitations to events sponsored by HIPRA.
Lawful basis: Performance of the contractual relationship and HIPRA’s legitimate Interest.
Recipients: Third parties to which HIPRA has entrusted cloud computing, security, auditing, mailing, technical and computer support services, as well as companies in its group.
Rights: Request access to and rectification or erasure of personal data and other rights as explained in the additional information. You can seeview the detailed additional information about data protection in our Privacy Policy.

For further information, please check our detailed information on Data Protection.

Website for veterinarians

The contents of this website are aimed exclusively at prescribing veterinarians. By clicking on Accept you state that you are a veterinary professional. In other case, please contact a veterinarian and click on Decline.

ACCEPT
DECLINE

NEWSLETTER

Don´t miss any updates

I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Basic information on Data Protection.