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Good management
practices, along with a testing program, will control Johne's disease
in goats.
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It takes patience
and consistent management to control Johne's disease once it is established in
an goat herd. The good news is that it can be done and management changes recommended
for Johne's disease control will also help control many other infectious diseases.
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There are many
factors affecting the design of a control program:
- The reason
the goats are being raised
- The estimated
herd prevalence of Johne's disease
- The owner's
perception of the importance of Johne's disease control relative
to other husbandry/health issues
- The capacity
of the owner to pay for diagnostic tests and make management changes
to limit the spread of the infection
- The speed
with which the owner wants to achieve control of Johne's disease,
and
whether the goal is to control or to eradicate the infection.
(Since an effective
program should closely reflect the particular resources and requirement
of each individual goats operation, the following is meant to provide
a general framework only.)
If M.
paratuberculosis infection has been confirmed in one goat in
a herd, it is likely that other goats are infected as well. The
next step should be to decide how aggressive the herd manager needs/wants
to be to address these other potential cases and prevent the spread
of the infection in the herd. To do so, s/he needs to assess whether
and when (at what age) other goats were exposed to the infected
animal(s) and if there were other cases in the recent past that
fit a Johne's disease profile but may not have been assessed for
the infection. If the goal is to control or eradicate the infection,
it will be necessary to identify and test these goats. Test-positive
animals should be culled or segregated from the herd.
Since a single
round of testing may not identify all infected animals, the manager
should begin longer term surveillance of the herd to include if
feasible:
- Regular assessment and
recording of body condition to include weighing or palpation of ribs/spine at
least annually
 Annual
AGID or fecal culture of the goats exposed to manure from the confirmed case.
- More frequent testing
for any offspring of the confirmed case(s) and animals exhibiting weight loss
or diarrhea. Segregate of these animals until a diagnosis explaining these clinical
signs is reached.
It is important
to block the spread of the infection by preventing kids from being
exposed to potentially contaminated manure. Ways to help accomplish
this include:
- Segregating
the herd by level of infection risk so that likely-uninfected
kids are not exposed to adults with a higher risk of infection
- Preventing
fecal pellets from contaminating feeders and waterers
- Conducting
kidding in clean, manure-free areas
- Cleaning
with a phenolic-based disinfectant since M. paratuberculosis
is believed resistant to many disinfectants such as chlorine bleach,
etc.
- Hand-rearing
kids
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