Cowdria ruminantium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Heartwater | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Cowdria ruminantium (Moshkovski, 1947) |
Heartwater, Cowdria ruminantium, is an infectious rickettsial disease of domestic and wild ruminants, spread by ticks in the genus Amblyomma. Affected mammals include cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, and buffalo. The disease’s name is derived from the fact that fluid collects around the heart or in the lungs of infected animals.[1]
It is common in most of Africa and some of the West Indian islands. The symptoms include fever, loss of appetite and breathing difficulties, and it is frequently fatal. It was first identified in sheep in South Africa in the 1830s, and had reached the Caribbean by 1980.[1]
The ticks which carry the disease occur in Africa and the Caribbean, and feed on a wide variety of vertebrate hosts. In the Caribbean, at least, the Cattle Egret has been implicated in the spread of heartwater since it colonized the islands in the 1950s.[1]
