**2. Livestock value**

Livestock is an important asset throughout the world, with a value of at least \$1.4 trillion. This sector is subdivided in long market chains that provide employment for almost 1.3 billion people worldwide and livelihood of 600 million poor smallholder farmers in the developing world directly depends on livestock [1]. Ruminants fulfill numerous roles, ranging from providing manure, milk, meat, and draught power. Animal protein is one of the major parts of the daily food supply. Globally livestock products contribute 33% of daily protein consumption in the shape of eggs, meat, and milk. The demand of livestock products is increasing day by day due to rapid urbanization and population growth [2].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In developed countries, animal diseases adversely affect the economy of livestock farms, businesses, and animal production sectors, whereas in developing countries, there are additional menaces of food scarcity and capital reduction [3].

**4. Control and eradication of diseases**

that can be controlled can also be eradicated.

policy is a pivot point of biosecurity at any farm [18].

becomes an economically feasible option [18].

methods of immunization [16].

microorganisms against disinfectants.

For prevention and control of infectious diseases, strict biosecurity measures, quarantine, isolation of infected and disease suspected animals, effective disease surveillance, monitoring and networking programs with suitable vaccination, and treatment strategies play a key role [14]. Routine farm practices should include measures to decrease spread of transmissible diseases, for example, by improving hygiene, keeping newly purchased animals in the quarantine, and establishing coordinated, sustained surveillance for diseases that can spread beyond borders of countries and continents [15]. Control of any disease is varying value that depends upon the country and region and needs annual expenses [16]. All most all the disease can be controlled by following simple procedures such as quarantine and vaccines. The eventual feat of control of any disease is the eradication of disease. But it is not compulsory that a disease

Introductory Chapter: Ruminants—The Husbandry, Economic, and Health Aspects

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Proper cleaning and disinfection is a critical step in limiting the fecal-oral transmission cycles of pathogens that are mostly present in the feeding or treatment equipment or fomites [17]. The first step is a systematic cleaning to remove organic material before applying disinfectant. Everyday vigorous scrubbing can avoid the development of biofilms, which act as a shield for

Adequate ventilation is imperative to the health of housing animals. Sufficient ventilation in a walled housing not only removes infectious aerosol pathogens but also reduces humidity [14]. Decreased humidity decreases the survival time of airborne and surface-borne infectious agents. In case of disease outbreak bedding materials from infected animals, feed stuff, excretory and secretory products including dung and urine, and clothing of people working in infected animal houses should be destroyed properly [17]. Biosecurity refers to the management practices that decrease the contact of infectious pathogens in animals. Adoption of biosecurity measures can prevent the incidence of infectious animal diseases. Closed door

Vaccination has been a practical approach for the control and eradication of several infectious diseases worldwide. Effective control measures along with proper vaccination can lessen the incidence rate of the different animal diseases [19]. Vaccination is used to progressively decrease the burden of infection until either eradication becomes certain or culling policy

Many factors interrelate to lessen the immunizing efficacy of vaccination programs such as low quality vaccines, improper vaccine storage, and immune status of animals [20]. Recent molecular techniques such as development of subunit DNA vaccines, recombinant vaccines, and non-pathogenic virus-vectored vaccines lead to the production of more efficient and safer

OIE pathway to control any disease includes preliminary surveillance for that disease, followed by mass vaccination to control the disease, and then again serological surveillance to monitor disease prevalence. These approaches push the country on the way to free from

diseases that result in the declaration of provisional absence of disease [15].

In developed countries, during the last few decades, there has been a decrease in livestock diseases due to the increase in vaccine's quality and quantity, more effective drug development, and advancement in diagnostic technologies. At the same time, the emergence of new diseases such as avian influenza H<sup>5</sup> N1 became a threat for whole world [4]. In developing countries, there have been comparatively less changes in the incidence rate and prevalence of diseases of livestock. Maladministration and husbandry practices can increase the susceptibility to parasites and pathogens. If any young animals die of disease at an early age, this decreases profit [5].
