A bull was reported suffering from cutaneous warts over the face, head and both side of the neck for last two months. Cutaneous papillomatosis was diagnosed based on clinical signs and characteristic visible growth pattern of warts. The animal was treated with auto-hemotherapy. After second week of auto-hemotherapy, warts started to regress and shed off leaving a small scar at the site of growth. After four weeks of treatment, marked improvement was observed in the condition of animal leaving only 3-4 warts and by the end of sixth week, animal showed complete recovery with no reoccurrence.
Keywords: Auto-hemotherapy; bull; papillomatosis
Introduction
Cutaneous papillomatosis in cattle are benign tumors induced by host specific papilloma virus. There are ten well characterized types of Bovine papilloma virus-1 to 10. It is spread by direct contact with infected animal and infection gaining entry through skin abrasions. Warts can be in the form of filliform projections, flat, round sessile or elongated structure appearing like a rice grain. Warts can be treated by surgery or cryosurgery followed by vaccination with autogenous vaccine but many times surgical intervention and even vaccination may increase the size of the residual warts and prolong the disease. Surgical intervention is not possible, if large area is involved. Successful treatment of cutaneous papillomatosis has been a great challenge because effective medicines are not available. Several therapies have been tried for treatment of warts with variable results in cattle (Rao et al, 2000; Jana and Mukherjee, 2013; Vadalia et al., 2013; Kavitha et al., 2014). This communication reports successful management of cutaneous papillomatosis in a crossbred bull using auto-hemotherapy.
History and Diagnosis
A crossbred Frieswal bull aged around fifteen months was reported to be suffering from cutaneous warts over the face, head and both side of the neck for last two months at the bull rearing unit. The warts were multiple sessile growth, low flat and circular in appearance from 0.5 to 2 cm in diameter (Fig. 1). They were grayish white in appearance. The warts started appearing one month back with gradual increase in size and number. All physiological parameters like temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, rumen motility, mucus membrane were within normal range. Cutaneous papillomatosis was diagnosed based on clinical signs and characteristic visible growth pattern of warts. Initially the animal was treated with Anthiomaline (a) (Lithium antimony thiomaleate) @ 15 ml deep Intramuscular every fourty eight hour for five occasions. Anthiomaline treatment did not lead to any improvement in the condition even upto one month after completion of treatment. After that it was decided to undertake autohemotherapy. For this, 20 ml of venous blood was collected by jugular venipuncture and 10 ml of blood was injected deep I/M and another 10 ml was injected S/C weekly for six weeks. Autohemotherapy was undertaken using all sterile precautions. After second week of autohemotherapy, there was progressive regression of wart tissues, shedding of older warts and non-appearance of fresh warts. After four weeks of treatment, marked improvement was observed in the condition leaving only 3-4 warts and by the end of sixth week post treatment, animal showed complete recovery (Fig. 2). No adverse reactions were observed during course of treatment. During four month post recovery observation period, no recurrence was observed.
Discussion
There is significant relationship between development of papilloma and immune status of animal (Radostits et al., 2007). It occur in severe form in immunocompromised animals. Papilloma virus infect the basal keratinocytes replicating its genome in the differentiating spinous and granular layers causing excessive growth that is characteristic of wart formation (Radostits et al., 2007). Warts can occur almost on any part of body but most common on head, around eyes and on the neck and shoulders. Findings of occurrence of warts in our study corroborates with earlier observations (Hegde, 2011; Jelinek and Tachezy, 2005). Medicinal treatment with Anthiomaline, Antimosan, Fowler's solution and Thuja (homeopathic medicine) etc. are in practice but results are not always satisfactory (Jana and Mukherjee, 2013). Anthiomaline has been used extensively in cattle for wart treatment. It is predominantly effective in treatment of pedunculated type of warts. Little or no success is seen in treatment of sessile and flat warts with Anthiomaline. This might be the reason for failure of Anthiomaline therapy in our animal as sessile types of warts a broad base were present in the animal. Auto-hemotherapy lead to successful clinical recovery from warts in our case within six weeks of treatment. Autohemotherapy stimulates reticuloendothelial system and increases population of macrophage in circulating blood which might be responsible for enhancing regression rate of papilloma (Turk et al., 2005). Autohemotherapy may help the immune system of the animal to know and identify the abnormality of the virus induced cells and also help to correct the actual reason of failure in immunological protective mechanism of body which allowed such abnormal cell proliferation (Patnayak, 2004). Findings of present study are in accordance with Hegde (2011) and Ramakrishnan and Sundaravinayaki (2013) who treated bovine papillomatosis using auto hemotherapy.
Our study concludes that cutaneous papillomatosis can be treated successfully with auto hemotherapy alone. The therapy is cost effective and easy to perform and hence useful for treatment of warts at field level.
References
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N. Chand (1), A.S. Sirohi and S. Tyagi
ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cattle (CIRC)
Grass Farm Road
Meerut Cantt - 250001(Uttar Pradesh)
(1.) Senior Scientisit and Corresponding author.
E-mail: n_chand75@rediffmail.com
(a -) Brand of Prima Vetcare Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai