Johne's Disease - HiHealth Herdcare

[@malcock4977]

The testing in Oz has not been accurate and a lot of herds - flocks have been devastated by our previous program. It did help our testing labs to make a big profit from all the testing. Unless there is an accurate test the risk / benefit of accreditation for you operation needs to be carefully assessed. On farm Johnes management practices will help to limited the spread of the disease.

[@BiobestLaboratories]

Hello, thanks for watching. Testing and control of Johne’s is not simple due to the slow and progressive nature of disease. Animals can be infected but in the early stages of infection have no clinical signs of disease, no antibodies to detect in blood and are not shedding the bacteria that cause Johne’s in their dung. If a test is used incorrectly or a poor test (e.g., looking for acid fast bacteria in faecal samples under a microscope) is used progress may not be made. We have very good evidence from UK cattle health schemes that a combined programme of testing for Johne’s by blood and follow up dung testing (PCR and/or culture), removal of positive animals and management changes to reduce infection of replacement stock can reduce the levels of Johne’s disease and where a plan strictly followed eradicate disease from a herd over a 5-10 year period. UK testing and control programmes are designed for management practices in the UK and of course may be less relevant to other countries. In the UK we believe that every herd should have a Johne’s control plan. The nature of this plan and the balance between control through management practices and testing and culling infected animals depends on the starting position of the herd and the objectives of the herd.