Pseudo-rage – also known as Aujeszky’s disease – is currently spreading in the Main-Tauber district. The district office of the Baden-Württemberg district reports on this.
Recently, the viral disease has been increasingly detected in wild boars in the region, the authority said. Pigs are considered the main hosts of the globally widespread and highly contagious disease.
Aujeszky’s disease (AD) is therefore harmless for primates – including humans – and humans are not affected. Animals that belong to the equine family – such as horses and donkeys – are also resistant.
However, there is great danger for some species of domestic animals. “The disease is always fatal for dogs, cats and other carnivores,” warns the district office. A hunting dog recently had to be euthanized after a driven hunt because it showed symptoms of AD, the statement continues.
AK is a notifiable animal disease; the pathogen belongs to the herpes virus family. In dogs and cats, for example, severe itching is a characteristic symptom. Other signs include fever, vomiting, respiratory diseases and movement disorders, especially in pigs. The disease can have a similar course to rabies. While older pigs often survive the infection, although it can recur later, it often leads to death in piglets.
In the currently affected area, dogs should always be kept under supervision and on a leash, the district office advises. Because the animals can become infected just by sniffing them, the virus is transmitted quickly. If a dog or cat came into contact with the body fluids of an infected wild boar, they would become infected. There is neither a vaccination against the virus nor a therapy against the disease.
Hunters should under no circumstances feed wild boar meat or offal to their dogs, because the Aujeszky virus is very survivable and can survive both meat maturation and freezing. The viruses can appear in the feces of infected animals and can even survive in the soil.
Owners of domestic pigs should also be particularly careful and strictly adhere to the usual biosecurity measures to protect the stock, warns the district office.
Pseudorage is the colloquial term for the disease, which was originally named after Aladár Aujeszky, a Hungarian veterinary pathologist and microbiologist. The scientist was the first to describe the viral disease in pigs at the beginning of the last century.
Sources: District Office of the Main-Tauber District, “Tagesschau.de”, “Bild.de”, Animal Disease Information Lower Saxony
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