A mysterious disease appeared in Germany: droplets of blood appear all over the body of the calves, and the animals rather quickly die of blood loss. Veterinarians don't know what this disease is. Preventive vaccinations, genetically modified feed or colostrum of a mother-cow - what is so detrimental to calves born healthy?
German livestock breeders have never seen anything like it in their nightmares. The calf's temperature rises, it becomes lethargic, blood begins to ooze from the pores throughout the body. The animal dies in a day.
“Our first year calves look terrible. It seems that someone whipped them with a whip. Droplets of blood protrude all over the body, the coat sticks together, the eyes are literally bloodshot, - says farmer Robert Maiboom, helplessly spreading his hands. - The veterinarian has tried all the treatments. He prescribed vitamins to calves, drugs that increase blood clotting. The treatment did not help - all the sick calves died.
An outbreak at the Maibooma farm in Wesel in the lower Rhine occurred as early as October 2007. Then the farmer lost seven calves at once. And the last case of an unknown disease was registered in March 2009. The peasants called the calves' disease bloody sweat - after all, in animals, blood literally flows through the pores on the skin.
The disease behaves unpredictably
Most often young animals get sick at the age of two or three weeks. The disease develops very quickly. From the appearance of the first drop of blood on the fur to the death of the animal, sometimes only a few hours pass. In recent months, more than a hundred cases of the mysterious disease have been registered, most of them in Bavaria. However, knowledgeable people assume that there are much more unreported cases. Bloody sweat is also common in Belgium. There are discussions among specialists about the causes of the disease.
- Currently, this strange disease behaves unpredictably. It urgently needs to be investigated, says Wolfgang Klee of the Munich University of Veterinary Medicine in Oberschleissheim.
Ottmar Distl of the Veterinary Academy in Hanover adds:
- We very rarely deal with diseases that lead to death in most sick animals.
As stated, veterinarians were confronted with an unexplored calf disease two years ago. In the past year, messages from farmers have increased. Wolfgang Klee observed bleeding in calves on all parts of the body, although the skin did not have any damage. Hemorrhages also appeared on the mucous membranes. Even the whites of the eyes filled with blood. At the slightest damage to the skin or mucous membrane, blood gushed like a fountain. The calves suffered greatly and died a painful death.
Blue tongue
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During the autopsy of the calves, experts discovered subcutaneous hemorrhages and intestinal bleeding. But the bone marrow was damaged the most. Veterinarians say it becomes jelly-like. The blood of dead animals lacks platelets involved in blood coagulation processes, and it does not clot at all. In addition, there are very few white blood cells (leukocytes) in the blood of sick calves, so the animals become defenseless against any infection.
Livestock breeders are at a loss and do not know what to expect in the future. The peasants think that maybe the reason is in the soybeans they feed the cattle. They are also not sure about the harmlessness of vaccinations. Under suspicion were, first of all, industrial methods of cattle breeding, poisonous species of fern plants allegedly found in green fodder, as well as photovoltaic power plants in cowsheds. Perhaps, the methods of processing feed are not harmless either …
Many peasants are unhappy with the mandatory vaccinations against bluetongue, or blue tongue. Bluetongue, a catarrhal fever of sheep that later spread to camels and cattle, was first reported in South Africa. Through North Africa, the disease entered Europe and spread to Switzerland and other countries. In Germany, since April 2008, calves have been vaccinated against bluetongue from the age of three months. Farmers who refuse to vaccinate animals face fines.
For help - to the Virgin Mary
The Schützeneder couple set up a “biological farm” in Zimbach, where no vaccinations are given to calves. Opponents of intensive industrial animal husbandry, they called on the peasants of Bavaria to make a pilgrimage to the image of St. Mary in Alteting, in order to all together ask the Virgin Mary to save the defenseless calves crying in blood. More than six hundred people gathered for the procession. "Holy Mary, help us in our trouble!" - exclamations were distributed in the square in front of the chapel. “Nobody helps us, and we turn to Saint Mary, the patroness of Bavaria, and ask her for protection and help,” the organizers of the religious procession wrote in their invitations to the event.
In the meantime, veterinarians are pushing for a scientific study of an unknown disease. Expert Distl is convinced that blue tongue vaccinations have nothing to do with bloody sweat. He believes the calves were infected from adult cows that were not vaccinated. Experts are trying to find out if genetic defects are the cause of the strange disease. Calves of three breeds fall ill. Since they could not get infected from each other, the researchers rule out infection with bacteria or viruses. Genetically modified feed raw materials or pesticides cannot cause disease either.
Fragments of the mosaic
Meanwhile, some observations make us wary. In individual farms, a large number of sick animals are concentrated, up to forty calves in one place. All the animals examined by Wolfgang Klee were kept in a farm where vaccinations against so-called viral diarrhea (BVD) were carried out. The disease can cause symptoms similar to bloody sweat, but diseased calves were not vaccinated against BVD.
“So far we have only separate fragments of the mosaic, which in no way add up to a whole picture,” says Wolfgang Klee.
In the first hours of life, the calves were given colostrum from their mothers. Experts believe that colostrum, which is very important for young animals, could contain antibodies that attacked the bone marrow and destroyed it.
“Symptoms have always appeared after calves suckled colostrum for the first time,” emphasizes Ottmar Distl from Hanover.
Scientists continue to collect information related to the bloody sweat disease of calves, interview colleagues across the country, compare facts, and look for patterns. Since April 2009, the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food has been carrying out systematic milk and blood tests on cattle. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin is also dealing with this issue.
Anxious waiting
The peasants are desperate to get help from the state, and therefore turn to higher powers. The most devout fumigates their homes, yards, and livestock buildings with incense. After that, the veterinarians were able to put on their feet several calves, which began to sweat bloody. True, they claim that the animals were saved by blood transfusions. In addition, Distl saw three calves that were bleeding the previous day and recovered the next morning. These animals were not treated at all.
- To do nothing! - the veterinarian advises. - Do not interfere in any way! As soon as you touch the calf, you injure it, and if the food is gone, it will bleed out.
Russian experts are now in anxious expectation - what if a mysterious disease leaves Germany and begins its march across Russia?