The Rural Voice, 1983-11, Page 14Peebles
Farms
Yorkshire /Hampshire
Hybrid Gilts
Purebred Yorkshire &
Hampshire Boars
R.O.P. Tested
DOUG PEEBLES
R.R. 2, Atwood
356-2369 356-2230
Anytime After 6p.m.
staff were first seeing the disease, two
human patients, who both happened
to be pig farmers, developed a similar
kind of meningitis. Sanford says both
men eventually recovered, without
any after-effects. In Europe, where
30 cases of the disease in humans
were reported in recent years, half the
patients were left deaf in both ears.
While researchers are still uncertain
exactly how humans contact the
disease from pigs, many of the Euro-
pean disease victims were butchers.
This led medical authorities to
postulate the meningitis may have
been contacted by handling a pig's
carcass when the butchers had cuts or
abrasions on their hands.
While individual piglets with Strep -
suis -type II can be treated fairly
quickly with antibiotics, Dr. Sanford
says there's no sure method of con-
trolling the progression of the disease
which seems to repeat itself in the
herd, disappearing for up to a year,
only to appear again.
Although pigs account for about
half the lab's business, the
veterinarians and technicians see a
variety of livestock. One recurring
problem they noted in young dairy
calves, aged one to two weeks to a
month old, coming to the lab was a
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severe, unrelenting diarrhea, formally
known as cryptosporidiosis.
The coccidial -like bug was so tiny,
Dr. Sanford recalls, it took an elec-
tron microscope to spot it properly.
Again, this is a livestock disease
which can also affect humans. The in-
itial reports of cryptosporidiosis were
noted in immunal deficient patients -
people suffering either from leukemia
or those who had had heart or kidney
transplants. When the disease strikes
these patients, the results are fatal.
Recently, however, the same
organism is being noted in cattle pro-
ducers and veterinary science
students, but with far less serious
results. The disease in these cases
resembles a type of gastric flu, San-
ford says, with symptoms such as
vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal
pains, which subside after several
days.
Finally, the pathologist reports, the
organism has been showing up in one
other group of hospital patients -
those suffering from the relatively
new disease AIDS, most often
associated with the homosexual com-
munity. Cryptosporidiosis is now
close to becoming the second major
cause of death in AIDS victims, he
says.
While there's no specific treatment
for the disease when it strikes calves,
it's another disease spread by
fecal/oral contamination when the
animals are feeding.
Sanitation, again, is the best
preventative medicine, combined
with some drugs veterinarians are
now using to combat the disease, says
Dr. Stanford.
In addition to his hours in the lab,
Dr. Sanford also spends a good deal
of time publicizing some of the lab's
findings, most notably in swine
pathology. In the last year, some of
the conferences he addressed include
the U.S. Association of Swine Pro-
ducers in Des Moines, Iowa; the
University of Minnesota Swine Herd
Health conference in Minneapolis -
St. Paul and the Inter -State
Veterinary Medical Association con-
vention in Sioux City, Nebraska. His
calendar is already filling up with
future speaking engagements.
Happily, Dr. Ernest Sanford has
found his career in pathology has
proved as exciting and varied as he
dreamed it would be during his stu-
dent days.
"This is a fantastic challenge, every
day is a challenge. I never cease to
have new material to work on," he
says, with an enthusiasm that's cat-
ching when he describes his work. ❑