Before a wildlife producer can buy a buffalo, he needs to register with the directorate of veterinary services. To acquire these animals a reserve needs to check the buffalo for the following diseases and results must be negative if the reserve wants free ranging buffalo roaming the plains and river beds at Ka'Ingo.
Bovine tuberculosis in buffaloes is caused by the
bacterium mycrobacterium bovis , which is also responsible for the disease in cattle.
The disease spreads when cough droplets are produced into the atmosphere by infected animals and inhaled by others. Contaminated food and water can also be a medium for transmission of the disease. Predators which then feed on the carcasses of infected animals will also be contaminated. There is no vaccine or treatment available for buffaloes with tuberculosis yet. Therefore animals that come from infected areas must test negative three times, three months apart, before being certified as clean. If only one animal from the herd tests positive, it must be removed and the procedure starts all over again. Bovine tuberculosis is life threatening disease in buffalo, but the time of infection till death is unknown
Corridor disease, or
buffelsiekte as its also known, is an acute and usually fatal disease of cattle caused by the
protozoon theileria parva lawrencei. It is transmitted by a brown ear tick from buffaloes to cattle.
This tick occurs in eastern, wetter parts of South Africa. It is called corridor disease because of its occurrence in the corridor between Hluhluwe and Umfolozi parks in KZN. The protozoon is ingested by the larvae of the brown ear tick when they feed off an infected buffalo. The larvae moult and fall off, to climb onto a new host. The nymph will moult again and fall off and the adult will climb onto a new host. The parasite will die off when the adult tick dies and can therefore not transmit to the eggs by trans-ovarial passage and infect a new generation of eggs. If buffalo are removed from the area for two years the area can then be declared corridor free again.
Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious and is caused by the
picorna virus that affects cloven-hooved animals like ruminants and pigs. The mechanism through which the virus is spread from buffaloes to cattle is unknown. It can be spread by direct or indirect contact, but the most common way is by direct contact, saliva has the highest concentration of the virus so any thing used to feed/drink/chew are just some ways of which an animal can come into contact with the virus.
It is of great importance to make sure that the surrounding farms domestic live stock and wildlife don't enter the reserve for reasons that they could bring any of these diseases through. Boosters and vaccinations are conducted annually, to ensure the safety of the reserves wildlife not contracting viruses. Close observations for visual abnormalities and symptoms are done daily to ensure if outbreaks occur they can be attended to as soon as possible.
