2.1| CLINICAL HISTORY AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA
The outbreak occurred in a dairy goat farm located in Rio de Janeiro -
Brazil, with 650 Saanen goats raised under intensive husbandry
management. In late spring (November 2017), in the mid-kidding season,
increased mortality in suckling kid goats among one and three months old
was reported by the farmer. The history was a sudden acute condition
that involved abdominal bloating, dullness, and death within 6 to 12
hours. Likewise, 20.0% (11/55) of the kid goats born so far had died
with the same clinical signs. At the first clinical examination, sick
kid goats showed a distended abdomen, a fair amount of content in the
abomasum by ballottement, right and left paralombar fossa distended by
the presence of gas in the percussion, dullness, anorexia, and
dehydration (Figure 1 A and B). From seven animals that died with
clinical signs of abomasal bloat and other four that died without such
symptoms (classified as control group), biological materials were
collected for pathological, microbiological, and molecular diagnosis, as
will be described in sequence.
Likewise, an epidemiological survey was carried out in order to verify
the possible associated factors related to the disorder. A descriptive
observational study represented by descriptive and intervention phases
were adopted to develop control and prevention measures (Stevenson et
al., 2017). Morbidity, lethality and mortality rates were also
calculated from dairy farm data based on the 45 days subsequent to the
first technical visit and before management corrective measures (At the
second visit time). In addition, frequencies of deaths due to acute or
relapses clinical features, as well as frequencies of sick animals and
relapses without death were assessed. Relapses were considered as two or
more days without the previous feature of abomasal bloat.