Swedish Animal Health Service, Kungsängens gård, SE-753 23 Uppsala, Sweden.
Acta Vet Scand. 2011 Apr 14;53(1):27. doi: 10.1186/1751-0147-53-27.
Footrot is a world-wide contagious disease in sheep and goats. It is an infection of the epidermis of the interdigital skin, and the germinal layers of the horn tissue of the feet. The first case of footrot in Swedish sheep was diagnosed in 2004. Due to difficulties in distinguishing benign footrot from early cases of virulent footrot and because there is no possibility for virulence testing of strains of Dichelobacter nodosus in Sweden, the diagnosis is based of the presence or absence of clinical signs of footrot in sheep flocks. Ever since the first diagnosed case the Swedish Animal Health Service has worked intensively to stop the spread of infection and control the disease at flock level. However, to continue this work effectively it is important to have knowledge about the distribution of the disease both nationally and regionally. Therefore, the aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of footrot in Swedish lambs at abattoirs and to assess the geographical distribution of the disease.
A prevalence study on footrot in Swedish lambs was performed by visual examination of 2000 feet from 500 lambs submitted from six slaughter houses. Each foot was scored according to a 0 to 5 scoring system, where feet with score ≥2 were defined as having footrot. Moreover, samples from feet with footrot were examined for Dichelobacter nodosus by culture and PCR.
The prevalence of footrot at the individual sheep level was 5.8%, and Dichelobacter nodosus was found by culture and PCR in 83% and 97% of the samples from feet with footrot, respectively. Some minor differences in geographical distribution of footrot were found in this study.
In a national context, the findings indicate that footrot is fairly common in Swedish slaughter lambs, and should be regarded seriously.
腐蹄病是一种世界性的绵羊和山羊传染病。它是一种感染趾间皮肤表皮和脚部角组织生发层的疾病。2004 年在瑞典首次诊断出绵羊腐蹄病病例。由于难以区分良性腐蹄病和早期恶性腐蹄病，而且瑞典没有对迪克氏杆菌进行毒力测试的可能性，因此诊断依据是羊群中是否存在腐蹄病的临床症状。自首例确诊病例以来，瑞典动物健康服务局一直在努力阻止感染传播，并在羊群层面控制疾病。然而，为了有效地继续这项工作，了解疾病在全国和地区的分布情况非常重要。因此，本研究的目的是估计瑞典羔羊在屠宰场的腐蹄病患病率，并评估疾病的地理分布。
通过对来自六个屠宰场的 500 只羔羊的 2000 只脚进行肉眼检查，对瑞典羔羊的腐蹄病进行了患病率研究。每只脚根据 0 至 5 的评分系统进行评分，评分≥2 的脚定义为患有腐蹄病。此外，对患有腐蹄病的脚的样本进行了迪克氏杆菌的培养和 PCR 检测。
个体羊水平的腐蹄病患病率为 5.8%，通过培养和 PCR 从患有腐蹄病的脚的样本中分别发现了 83%和 97%的迪克氏杆菌。本研究发现了腐蹄病在地理分布上的一些微小差异。
从国家层面来看，这些发现表明腐蹄病在瑞典屠宰羔羊中相当普遍，应予以高度重视。
