Johnnes Disease

Henwin

hey guys,
I have purebread friesan dairy herd, over the last few years i brought in a number of cows from a farmer i know.
Last year 1 of the cows got really thin and got scour, she died. i ran some tests and turns out she had johnns disease. now there is another couple of cows that have symptoms too and im in the process of selling them.
What measures should i take to erriadicate it from the herd. I really dont want
it taking over all the cows.
Any advice welcomed, cheers.

whelan1

dont feed any milk from these cows to your replacement calves, i too bought it in... johnes is the equivalent of crohns disease in adults.... no harm to blood test and know where you stand, hopefully there will be an eradication scheme soon, think from now on anyone buying in stock should have then tested for bvd, johnes, ibr before they buy

pakalasa

From Animal Health Ireland;
http://www.animalhealthireland.ie/page.php?id=30

greysides

whelan1 wrote: »

s.... no harm to blood test and know where you stand, hopefully there will be an eradication scheme soon, think from now on anyone buying in stock should have then tested for bvd, johnes, ibr before they buy

The blood tests may not be reliable early on in the disease in an animal.

Any scheme will be a 'control' scheme, not an 'eradication' scheme. Testing is not reliable enough.

There's a lot of good information on the AHI site Pakalassa linked to but it will take a fair bit of study to get to know/understand it. However it sounds as though you have sufficient motivation/reason to do so.

Buzwaldo

Johnes disease is usually picked up by calves and stays in system to cause scour after 3-5 years. Usually other cows won't pick it up off infected cows. The big danger is colostrum feeding especially batch feeding of colostrum, as many dairy farmers do. One infected cow, passing the organism in her milk, which is mixed and fed to calves for the first 5 days of her lactation, can infect a shedload of calves. These animals can be problem free until they themselves are in their 2nd 3rd or later lactation. Thus Johnes can get into a herd insidiously and cause a major problem years down the line. Speak to your vet and get serious about a proper control plan esp re feeding colostrum next spring. Prob may also be worth trying to test & identify which animals may be infected, but tests not fully reliable. Particularly offspring of known infected older animals. Your vet should be able to give some good advice, or put you in touch with somebody who can. If not, ask another vet. Don't ignore, or long-finger this too much as it can create major long -term problem.
If somebody knows they have Johnes in their herd, and sells breeding / dairy stock they should be sued for reckless endangerment of purchasers livelihood. This works both ways.

whelan1

Buzwaldo wrote: »

Johnes disease is usually picked up by calves and stays in system to cause scour after 3-5 years. Usually other cows won't pick it up off infected cows. The big danger is colostrum feeding especially batch feeding of colostrum, as many dairy farmers do. One infected cow, passing the organism in her milk, which is mixed and fed to calves for the first 5 days of her lactation, can infect a shedload of calves. These animals can be problem free until they themselves are in their 2nd 3rd or later lactation. Thus Johnes can get into a herd insidiously and cause a major problem years down the line. Speak to your vet and get serious about a proper control plan esp re feeding colostrum next spring. Prob may also be worth trying to test & identify which animals may be infected, but tests not fully reliable. Particularly offspring of known infected older animals. Your vet should be able to give some good advice, or put you in touch with somebody who can. If not, ask another vet. Don't ignore, or long-finger this too much as it can create major long -term problem.
If somebody knows they have Johnes in their herd, and sells breeding / dairy stock they should be sued for reckless endangerment of purchasers livelihood. This works both ways.

great post

whelan1

Buzwaldo wrote: »

If somebody knows they have Johnes in their herd, and sells breeding / dairy stock they should be sued for reckless endangerment of purchasers livelihood. This works both ways.

this bit really strikes a cord with me,i am left with the disease after paying good money for apparently healthy stock, alot to be said for a closed herd imo... i often wonder if these guys selling these stock have any idea of the crap they are causing to other people