Salmonellosis in transported feral goats

An outbreak of acute diarrhoea and deaths was investigated in a group of 1,016 feral goats of varying ages, on a 400 hectare Gippsland pine plantation. The goats had recently been captured in north western New South Wales and transported by truck to Melbourne, Victoria, a journey of 20 to 25 hours, and maintained in holding yards for up to 10 days. They were then transported for a further 3 hours, and released in the Gippsland plantation. Within 1 to 2 weeks of release many goats developed acute, severe diarrhoea, weakness and recumbency. Thirty-eight percent of all goats died in the first 2 months on the farm. Autopsy findings were characteristic of salmonellosis in 13 (43%) of the 30 goats examined and Salmonella sp were cultured from these and one other goat (47%). Four different serotypes of Salmonella were represented (S. adelaide, S. typhimurium, S. muenchen, S. singapore). The findings support the view that stress due to transport and intensive handling caused carriers of Salmonella to develop into active excretors with high cross infection to susceptible goats.