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Wales Farmer March 2013 NEWS


Testing times in bid to beat disease


VIGILANCE IS KEY: Vet Dick Sibley has been working with Eifion and Geraint Jenkins to develop aplan for the eradication of Johne’s disease.


AKEY to controlling Johne’s


disease in


Wales’ dairy herds is to effectively manage cows that test positive for it, according to aleading expert.


Preventing the spread of infection with proactive man- agement protocols is an approach


adopted at


Cerrigcaranau Farm,adairy farmatTalybont, Ceredigion, whereasmall percentage of the herdhas tested positively for Johne’s. This chronic disease affects


cattle and sheep and has an incubation period of between three and five years.Itisan infection of the intestine,which eventuallycauses inflammation of the gut and prevents nutrient intake. VetDick Sibley,director of


myhealthyherdand avet at West Ridge Veterinary Practice, Devon, has been working at Cerrigcaranau to develop a plan forthe eradication and control of Johne’sdisease and recentlyled aFarming Connect knowledge transfer event on the farm. He advised farmers to moni-


tor the levelofdisease inci- dence in their herds regularly. At Cerrigcaranau Farm,a


Farming Connect demonstra- tion farm, this is done by sam- pling milk quarterly with NMR. When antibodylevels rise,it


is asign thatacow is becoming infectious.Animals thattest positive forthe disease should be tagged. The Jenkins family, whorun


aherdof120 Holstein cows at Cerrigcaranau Farm,started screening twoyears ago. Every animal thattests positive for Johne’sismarkedwith ared tag on its ear and leg. The Jenkinses arekeen to get on top of Johne’sbeforeit


By Debbie James


becomes areal problem in the herd.


“Dick has warned us that


unless we takeaction now, 80% of the herdcould have the dis- ease within 10 years.Itisnot an option to not do anything,’’ said Eifion, whofarms with his father,Dilwyn, and brother, Geraint. In the UK morethan half of


dairy herds arebelievedtobe infected. Studies showthat Johne’s-positive animals yield 4,000kg less milk over their life- time and the disease hasamajor influence on their fertility. The likelihood of them becoming lame increases five- fold and they arealso twice as likelytodevelop mastitis. About 80% of animals with


Johne’sare infected with the disease in their first week of life so preventing transmission to newborn animals is imperative. Baby calves aremost suscep-


tible becausetheyhavepoor immunity however,because antibodies areoften not pres- ent, it is difficult to test younger cattle. The Jenkinses breed all their


ownreplacements butMr Sibley warned thatbuying in stock presented the biggest risk formanycattle farmers. The problem of Johne’sis


often moreprevalent in herds thatare expanding quicklyby buying in newstock and keep- ing heifer replacements. Flying herds,incontrast,


have fewerproblems,despite the high numbers of bought-in stock, as these systems don’t keep the offspring. Mr Sibley said it wasdifficult


to source cattle thatwereatzero risk from Johne’s. He recom- mended thatfarmers should request the risk status of the supplier or,ifthatwas not available, to ask foratest to be done.


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PROBLEM AT SOURCE: Dick Sibley admits it is difficult to source cattle at zero risk from Johne’s.


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