Every year, in the spring, veterinarians take cattle blood samples for research on leukemia. This year at one of farms of the Nikolaev area the leukemia virus was found in 15 cows, the press service of the Pervomaisky RSA reports.
Leukemia in 15 cattle was discovered on a farm in the village of Kumari, in the Pervomaisky district during a planned screening for the virus of this disease. The study was carried out using the immunological method (ELISA).
Unhealthy animals were removed from the main herd and transferred to a separate stable, from where they will soon go to slaughter. For prevention purposes, repeated blood samples were taken from a dysfunctional herd of the entire livestock older than six months to identify a possible leukemia disease. Samples will be taken every 30-45 days until the negative results of the herd are obtained twice.
In addition, other measures are being taken, which were approved by the plan to improve the livestock population.
For information, cattle leukemia is a chronic infectious disease of a tumor nature, the causative agent of which is a retrovirus - cattle leukemia virus (cattle leukemia). Most often, the disease is asymptomatic, and if there are signs of the development of a pathological process, it is manifested by malignant changes in the blood (lymphocytosis) and the formation of tumors in the hematopoietic and other organs and tissues.
With cattle leukemia, metabolic processes in the body of a sick animal are significantly impaired, as a result of which changes in the qualitative characteristics of milk and meat, as well as the accumulation of metabolic products that are very harmful to the human body and animals, which, unlike the virus itself, are not destroyed by heat treatment .
The danger of the disease is that in the early stages it cannot be recognized without laboratory tests. Leukemia of cattle is slow and makes itself felt only in the last stages. And this is a serious problem. Timely diagnosis of blood cancer cannot cure the animal, but it prevents epidemics in the herd and saves the owners of cattle themselves from the possible consequences of eating unsuitable milk and meat.
