Strategies Used to Control

and Eradication of Disease

at Herd Level
Med-501 Epidemiology and Public Health
 Selective slaughter
Depopulation
Quarantine
Mass treatment
Mass immunization
Movement of the host
Alternate and sequential grazing
Control of vectors
Disinfection of fomites
Niche filling
Improvement in environment, husbandry and feeding
Genetic improvement
Minimal disease methods
 Selective slaughter

The deliberate killing of a minority of infected

animals to protect the well majority of healthy
population.
The selective slaughter of diseased animals
or reactors is to be found at by
immunodiagnostic screening test.
 Depopulation

When there is difficulty in application of

diagnostic techniques to diagnose the diseases
in the population in order to carry out selective
slaughter, complete depopulation of an affected
restricted population carried out to protect the
species at large.
Example: FMD in deer population in
Stanislans National Forest in California in
1924 there was no alternative, but to deer
depopulation (22,214 deer killed).
 Quarantine

Quarantine implies the enforced physical

separation from the healthy population of
infected or potentially infected individuals, their
products or items, they may have contaminated.
Such measures may be applied at national,
regional or herd level and they may be voluntary
or required by legislation.
It is applied at the international level to prevent
transmission of infectious or vectors from one
country to another
 Quarantine
The Office International Des Epizootics was established
in Paris 1924 to standardize the Veterinary Quarantine
procedures and regulations throughout the world.
Example: Imported cattle are usually placed in
quarantine stations for designed period (usually
maximum incubation period) prior to being transferred
to the property of the purchasers to ensure (by clinical
and for serologic monitoring) that they are not
infected with undesirable agent such as the virus of
FMD.
Similarly, dogs are quarantined for a period to ensure
they are free of rabies, before admitting them to rabies-
free countries.
 Mass treatment

The mass treatment approach to disease control

depends upon the availability of safe and cheap
therapeutic agents.
Antibiotics, Anthelmintic and other drugs like
hyper immune serum are used (therapeutically)
to treat diseases, and are administered
(prophylactically) at times of high risk to prevent
disease and thus to increase productivity.
Example: Sulfonamides in drinking water for
coccidiosis in chickens.
 Mass immunization

Mass immunization has been one of the most effective

forms of directed action against diseases undertaken in
veterinary medicine.
The interesting areas for future development of mass
immunization as a disease control tool are methods for
mass administration of vaccines that dispense with
problems of needle hygiene (such as use of jet injection
guns) or that eliminate the need to handle animal
individually.
Example: Stable vaccines incorporated in water or
feed and vaccines administered by mucosal route as
aerosols.
 Movement of the host

Animals can be removed from high risk

areas where infections are endemic.
This control strategy is implemented in
tropical countries where hosts are
seasonally migrated from areas in which
biological vectors are active.
 Alternate and Sequential
Grazing
The mixed grazing of susceptible animals with
stock that are genetically or immunologically
resistant to helminthes reduces pasture
contamination to an acceptable level.
The alternative grazing of a pasture with
different species of livestock again reduces
pasture contamination.
The sequential grazing at different times of
resistant and susceptible animals of the same
species reduces pasture contamination
 Control of vectors

Biological vectors:
Infectious diseases transmitted by biological
vectors can be controlled removing the vectors.
Insect vectors can be killed with insecticides.
Control of mechanical vectors:
Living organisms that mechanically transmit
infectious agents can be controlled by destruction
and disinfection
 Disinfection of Fomites

Fomites can be disinfected to prevent the

transmission of infectious agents.
Fomites include farm equipment, surgical
instruments and sometimes drugs themselves.
Food is heat-treated (Example: Pasteurization of
milk) to destroy microbes and their heat-
sensitive toxins to prevent food borne infections.
 Niche Filling
The presence of one organism within a niche can
prevent its occupation by another organism.
This is epidemiological interference, and has been
investigated, experimentally in the poultry industry where
suspensions of endogenous intestinal microbes have
been fed to one-day-old chicks to prevent colonization of
their digestive tract by virulent Salmonella spp.,
Campylobacter jejune and E.coli.
This technique of control has the advantage over
prophylactic antibiotic chemotherapy that antibiotic
resistance is not encouraged
 Improvement in Environment,
Husbandry and Feeding
The diseases of intensively produced animals,
particularly cattle and buffalo are major
contemporary problems which can be controlled
only when epidemiological investigations have
identified the 'determinants associated with
inadequate management.
Poor hygiene has been incriminated as the most
important environmental cause. All necessary
steps should be taken to maintain and improve
the environment and management, so as to
reduce and eradicate the diseases.
 Genetic improvement
Many diseases of both agricultural and companion
animals have a variable heritable components.
The disease may be determined predominantly
by genetic screening to identify disease animals by
screening either the total population at risk or the part
that is mainly responsible for the maintenance of a
particular disease.
The latter techniques are commonly applied in veterinary
medicine, because animals of superior germ plasm are
concentrated in pedigree nuclei that are used for
breeding.
The incidence of some infectious disease can be
reduced by selective breeding
 Minimal disease methods

Disease can be reduced in intensively reared

livestock by disinfecting infected premises and
by treating infected animals or removing them
from the animal unit.
Uninfected animals can be produced by
caesarean section and by hatching uninfected
eggs from poultry.
These combined techniques are termed minimal
disease methods.