CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Dealing with Johne's Disease
David H. Baver, VMD, Mercer County

If you are a Pennsylvania dairy farmer and never had to consider management strategies to control Johne's disease, you can either consider yourself lucky or consider yourself in denial. To review, Johne's disease is a chronic debilitating diarrheal disease of cattle caused by an acid-fast bacteria called Mycobacterium avium ss paratuberculosis. It is spread mainly by fecal oral mode and, to a lesser extent, in uteri by an infected dam. Control is based on reducing exposure of neonatal calves/young stock and identification/culling of infected adults. Identification of infected animals is made difficult because clinical cases seldom occur before two years of age, and available tests are slow and/or lack the ability to detect all positives.

Suppose you are a dairy producer milking approximately 100 cows. In the last year you culled 6 cows because of chronic diarrhea, weight loss and poor production. Three of those culled were culture positive for Johne's and the others were not tested. What practical options are available to you to manage this disease? Here are a few, but understand none are complete without management changes to prevent exposure of young stock to the infective organism (separate calves at birth, feed colostrums from ELISA test negative cows, raise heifers away from adult cows and contact with their manure.)

Pennsylvania Johne's Disease Certification Program
(a three-level program)

Certification at the Management Level - The Management Level is designed for herds that would like to minimize the risk of Johne's Disease entering or spreading within the herd, but do not wish to test for Johne's Disease. This level is achieved by performing a Johne's Disease risk assessment and herd plan, and implementing the appropriate Johne's management practice guidelines. No testing for Johne's Disease is required for the Management Level of certification.

Certification at the Control Level - The Control Level is designed to benefit herds that have Johne's Disease and includes regular testing in the herd plan. Regular testing helps identify higher risk animals within the herd in order to contain disease spread. An initial test of at least 30 randomly selected animals at second lactation (3 years old) or higher is required to enter the Control Level.

Certification at the Status Level - The Status Level is designed to benefit herds that have performed the initial testing described above for the Control Level and are test-negative for Johne's Disease. Test-negative herds may achieve Level 1, 2, 3 or 4 through annual test protocols. Each higher level represents a greater probability that the herd is free from JD. However, this does not certify that a herd is actually free of JD. The relative level of risk is what Status certification represents:

Level I - 85% probability free of JD.
Level II-95% probability free of JD.
Level III-98% probability free of JD.
Level IV-99% probability free of JD.

For more information on the Pennsylvania Johne's Certification Program contact your veterinarian or the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Using Likelihood Ratios to Manage
Johne's Disease

This is a program developed by University of Wisconsin's Johne's specialist Mike Collins and detailed in the February 2003 issue of Dairy Herd Management. Using the ELISA blood test, test groups of cows between 200 to 305 days in milk are tested for Johne's disease. Results are reported in likelihood ratio called an S/P ratio. Based upon results certain management recommendations are enacted.

• S/P <0.10:Negative-Keep in herd, colostrum safe to use, retest next lactation
  
• S/P 0.10-0.25:Suspect-Keep in herd, do not use colostrum, retest next lactation
  
• S/P 0.25-0.40:Weak Positive-Suspect-Keep in herd, do not use colostrum, retest next lactation or sooner if any symptoms appear
  
• S/P 0.40-1.00:Positive-Cull at end of lactation
  
• S/P >1.00:Strong Positive-Cull at end of lactation, sooner if clinical

As with the PDA certification program, success is contingent upon initiating management changes to prevent exposure of young stock to the infective organism.

Managing Johne's by Vaccination

In desperate situations where the incidence of Johne's disease is high and management practices are difficult to implement, control through vaccination is a consideration. Here are some things you should know about vaccination:

• The use of Johne's vaccine requires state approval and documentation.
  
• Vaccine can only be administered by an approved veterinarian.
  
• The vaccine is dangerous to handle and can only be administered to calves under 35 days of age.
  
• Vaccinated animals frequently develop a lump (sometimes the size of a grapefruit) at the injection site.
  
• Vaccinated animals rarely become clinical, but can still shed the infective organism in their manure.
  
• Vaccination should be used under the context of setting the stage for implementation of a management program.

For additional information on these and other Johne's Management strategies contact your veterinarian, your PDA regional veterinarian or local extension educator.

Take Heed from Lessons Learned
In California
David H. Baver, VMD, Mercer County

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Deanne Meyer, a livestock waste management specialist from the University of California, speak about the permitting process and environmental regulations that California dairy farmers and livestock producers face. She described a variety of state and federal regulations including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEDA), the Federal Clean Water Act, the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) covered under the Clean Water Act and the Porter - Cologne Act. She also described the influence environmental groups and trial lawyers have had and went on to say environmental rules and regulations governing livestock operations in California have turned into something that are almost impossible to understand, let alone, comply with. The end result in recent months has been gridlock and a likely end to any expansion of livestock operations in California. Now this may be music to Pennsylvania dairy producer's ears since California is a major competitor, but it should also be looked at as an omen. When environmental legislation is in the planning stages, the public, including the livestock industry, is asked for input and comments. Failure to participate in this process results in laws that end up further being defined by the courts, taking years and often enormous amounts of money. The world population stands at 6 billion people and is expected to increase by 1 billion in fewer than 12 years. We need both food and to be environmentally conscious. With less than 2% of the population of this country engaged in production agriculture, it's important for the agricultural community to participate in policy making. Pennsylvania dairy farmers and livestock producers are not faced with permitting gridlock that their California counterparts are, but the potential is there. To be proactive, producers, regardless of size need to clean up their act when it comes to environmental issues. They need to prevent discharge of contaminated surface water from livestock operations. They need to pay attention to ground water quality and nuisance issues, such as flies and odors. They also need to be involved in environmental and land use issues. If "as California goes, so goes the nation" is true, then those engaged in animal agriculture and the public with an interest in keeping their food supply local, cannot get started soon enough.