This is the second in Afrivet’s series of primary animal health care (PAHC) booklets, developed to help the veterinarian, livestock owner and livestock handler to understand the methodology used when implementing PAHC at farm level. These booklets are ideally suited as practical training aids for training livestock handlers in early disease identification and treatment and better understanding the diseases that need to be prevented and how best to prevent them.
                                                                                                                                                                         Limitations in early disease identification and treatment
While daily observation and the early treatment of the first signs of disease in livestock using Afrivet’s structured approach forms the cornerstone of PAHC, there is a limitation to this approach.
The limitation is that it does not manage several common deadly diseases, which can occur on any farm but for which no effective treatment exists. Either because the disease causes death too quickly for treatment or there is no treatment available.
                                                                                                                                                                                       If these diseases are not controlled by vaccination they limit the effectiveness of the early disease identification and treatment approach and will result in lost production. The livestock handler needs to know the common diseases that cannot be treated and how best to prevent them.