ATYPICAL PNEUMONIA IN COWS AFTER TRANSPORTATION

Abstract

Atypical pneumonia was proved in cetacean cows which died in the village of Boeritsa near Ihtiman after import from Austria. Fibrinous-purulent changes were detected both in lungs and pleura. Pathological anatomical findings were characteristic of pasteurellosis, but no Pasteurella bacteria were identified. Serratia marcescens and small amounts of Staphylococcus xylosus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis and Candida albicans were isolated after the microbiological examination of the material from the lungs. Antibiotic poly-resistance was detected in vitro. This indicated that they are most likely selected in the animals after frequent treatment with such agents by almost all groups to suppress conditionally pathogenic infections, possibly due to hygiene weaknesses in breeding and feeding in the farm they had inhabited prior to their import into Bulgaria. The stress during the long transportation and adaptation to the new living conditions is a prerequisite for their multiplication, which in vivo is accompanied by an increased virulence and development of fatal pneumonia.