Swine erysipelas is one of the most common and dangerous diseases that affects not only pigs, but also other inhabitants of farms: sheep, horses and poultry. The disease spreads extremely quickly, and in a short time you can lose all the livestock. Therefore, it is very important to identify the disease in a timely manner and take the necessary measures. To do this, you need to know what a mug looks like in pigs (it is advisable not only to read the description, but also to look at the photo), to know the symptoms of the disease and its treatment.
Important! Erysipelas is dangerous not only for animals, but also for people!
Description and pathogen
Erysipelas - an infectious disease of pigswhich is caused by the bacterium Erysipelothrix insidiosa. It belongs to the ubiquitous (ubiquitous) microorganisms. The bacterium is able to quickly adapt to the habitat. 
It, changing, sprouts in a diverse medium. At the same time, it is always immobile, does not form spores or capsules. Being a highly resistant pathogen, it can persist for many months in soil, water, carcasses of fallen animals and slurry.
Familiarize yourself with such representatives of the pig breeds as Duroc, Mirgorodskaya, meat, red-belt, Vietnamese.Smoking and salting do not kill the bacteria. It is sensitive only to high temperature (perishes at temperatures above 70 ° C), individual antibiotics and disinfectants.
Did you know? The causative agent of Erysipelothrix insidiosa mug is found in insects, arthropods, and even sea and river fish.
Causes of
The main source of the causative agent of erysipelas is sick animals that excrete pathogenic microbes with feces and urine. The pathogen persists for a long time in soil, manure, slaughter products, dead bodies, etc. Infection occurs through water, food, care items. 
The pathogen is also transmitted by parasitic insects, rodents and birds. Since erysipelas is primarily a soil infection, this leads to the seasonality of the disease, outbreaks occur only in the warm season.
In addition, the majority of healthy pigs are bacteria carriers, in the latent form of bacteria, erysipelas is most often concentrated in the tonsils and intestines. 
As a result of stress, weakness of the body, with an unbalanced diet (lack of protein), and especially because of the high temperature caused by other reasons, these bacteria can lead to disease.
You also need to learn about such swine diseases as: African plague, pasteurellosis, parakeratosis.Therefore, local outbreaks of this disease on farms often occur without external pathogen. In this case, not more than a third of pigs usually get sick, and the mortality rate is 55-80%.
Main symptoms and course of the disease
The incubation period of the disease is from one to eight days, sometimes longer. Then the course of the disease can be fulminant, subacute, acute or chronic.
Lightning fast
Fulminant disease is rare. Predominantly in pigs between the ages of 7 and 10 months with poor maintenance or during transport. The disease manifests itself dramatically. 
Weakness and depression come quickly, and the temperature rises sharply. This is accompanied by severe heart failure. Spots on the skin do not appear. Everything ends with the death of an animal within a few hours.
Sharp
The acute form is more common and, as a rule, is accompanied by blood infection. It begins with a sharp deterioration in the condition of the pig, a sudden increase in temperature to 42 ° C and higher.
The animal quickly weakens, moves a little, more lies. Gait becomes "wooden." Pig stops eating, constipation and vomiting begin. 
Heart failure leads to pulmonary edema. This can be seen by difficulty breathing and blue skin under the jaw and on the neck.
Spots of typical shape, pale pink, and then red, appear in the first - second day only in some animals. Without treatment and care, the pig is likely to die on the second - fourth day.
Subacute
It occurs most often. It begins with different skin rashes similar to urticaria. There is swelling. Lymph nodes swell. The temperature rises to 41 ° C. 
The animal becomes lethargic and lethargic, stops eating, drinks plenty of water, tries to retire. After one day, square, round or diamond-shaped spots appear on the skin, which turn pale when pressed. The disease lasts from two days to a week and, as a rule, ends in recovery.
We advise you to learn more about the features of breeding pigs.
Chronic
Most often it is a consequence of neglect of the disease, at least - a consequence of the latent form. 
Accompanied by necrosis of a large area of the skin, cardiac endocarditis and other chronic complications. Leads to slower pig growth.
Diagnostics
A rapid clinical diagnosis in acute or subacute rye faces is based on typical skin rashes and blemishes, as well as other signs of the disease. 
An unequivocal diagnosis can be made only after laboratory analysis of particles of the spleen, kidney, liver and tubular bone taken after the death of the pig.
Treatment
For the successful treatment of this disease, both symptomatic and special therapy are used in combination. The term of treatment of erysipelas in pigs is from 5 to 7 days. 
Particular attention is paid to food and drink animals. During the illness they experience strong thirst, so clean water should always be in their water bowl.
Drugstores
In the treatment of erysipelas, only pharmaceuticals are effective. The main serum is a special anti-mug serum.
Check out the list of drugs for animals: Enroxil, Biovit-80, Tylosin, Tetravit, Tetramizol, Fosprenil, Baycox, Nitrox Forte, Baytril.Together with it use antimicrobial agents of a wide spectrum of action. As a symptomatic treatment, antipyretic, cardiovascular, antihistamine preparations and vitamin complexes are used.
Antibiotics
To combat erysipelas, broad-spectrum antibiotics such as tylosin, farmazin, tylosomicol, penicillin or streptomycin, erythromycin, ecmonovociline, oxytetracycline and others are used, according to the recommendations of the veterinarian. 
Antibiotics are dissolved directly in anti-whey serum and a calculated dose is administered to animals (10–20 thousand units per kilogram body weight). The treatment is carried out twice a day for 3-5 days. If necessary, the treatment is continued with prolonged antibiotics such as Bicillin 5 or Bicillin 3.
Serum
It is most efficient to use a serum against anti-biotic pigs erysipelas at the same time. Serum is injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly, at the rate of 1 - 1.5 ml for each kilogram of body weight of the animal. In case of a serious condition, it is recommended to inject half doses of serum into the ear vein. The frequency and timing of treatment with serum are the same as with antibiotics.
Did you know? The first vaccine to fight Erysipelothrix insidiosa was received by Louis Pasteur in 1883.
Folk remedies
In case of erysipelas, it is not recommended to treat pigs with the help of traditional medicine, since there are no traditional remedies that have a clearly proven therapeutic effect.
There are separate measures in the form of covering the affected areas on the skin of the animal with a cloth soaked in vinegar, etc. 
But the history of the treatment of erysipelas shows that effectively and massively pigs began to be cured only after the emergence of the necessary pharmaceutical preparations. Before that, everything ended in a massive loss of livestock.
After recovery, after 10 days, the pigs are disinfected from the skin and limbs and returned to the common pigsty. All other pigs are vaccinated before.
Prevention
In order not to engage in the treatment of the disease in pigs, you need to take care of its prevention. As measures of general prophylaxis, regular cleaning of pig houses from manure, periodic disinfection of pig houses, fighting rodents and parasitic insects, maintaining high-quality feeding, and meeting sanitary and hygienic standards for keeping pigs are used. 
The main preventive method for erysipelas in pig farms is considered mass vaccination of all pigs. Strains of BP-2 are now widely distributed.
They are interesting because they allow to vaccinate simultaneously against classical plague and erysipelas. Inoculation of BP is done according to the instructions in conjunction with antibacterial drugs. 
Work with BP is necessary only in special gloves. Vaccination is carried out only healthy animals, at the age of not less than 2 months. The vaccine against swine erysipelas is administered twice with an interval of two weeks.
After this, immunity is maintained for up to 6 months. Therefore, vaccination at a pig farm is recommended to be done twice a year, or once in the spring, before the start of the warm season. Pigs are vaccinated as they grow, from 2 months.
Important! After vaccination, animals can be slaughtered for use as food for their meat and other products no earlier than a week after the injection of BP.Erysipelas is a serious disease, which, however, is not so difficult to prevent, maintaining cleanliness in animal housing and conducting regular disinfection of instruments and premises.
With careful care, you can almost always successfully resist the disease: see its symptoms in pigs in a timely manner and treat them.
