Degnala disease in buffaloes and cattle: epidemiological investigations

An attempt was made to identify the epizootiological features associated with Degnala disease occurring in the rice-growing areas of the Indian subcontinent and believed to be associated with mycotoxins. Epizootiological studies were made on disease outbreaks involving 370 herds from 136 villages of Haryana, India, during the years 1968 to 1978. They revealed that the disease, besides being seasonal and regional in occurrence, has a tendency to confine itself to a particular herd or field. All the disease outbreaks occurred during the winter and were associated with the feeding of rice straw. The incidence of the disease, varied from year to year, assuming serious proportions in certain years. The morbidity and mortality rates were 61.61% and 13.93%, respectively, in buffaloes and 13.49% and 2.41% in cattle, with no sex and age differences. Factors such as housing conditions of animals, shape of rice straw stacks, feeding practices, and use of pesticides and fertilizers had no bearing on the occurrence of the disease. Inadequate postharvest drying of rice plants before stacking and stacking at low-lying places or near water channels were the factors identified with occurrence of the disease. In the case of affected herds, 72.07% of the owners stacked rice straw immediately after harvesting, without allowing the plants to dry adequately, versus 10.60% of the owners of unaffected herds. Similarly, 72.97% of the farmers owning affected herds were found to stack rice straw either in low-lying areas or near canals and other water channels, versus 22.73% of the farmers of control herds.