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SW Wisconsin | I’ve dealt with this in my dairy herd, and I’ve got a few more options than you as far as testing and quarantine of calves, but here’s what I’ve done:
Test the whole herd annually. I use the milk test, it’s my understanding that the blood test is the same. It tests for antibodies, so it’s essentially testing if they’ve been exposed. The fecal test looks for shedding, so active cases. It’s my understanding that the fecal test will not show a false positive, but the blood/milk test will only very rarely show a false negative. I have had cows as old as 10 show up positive for the first time, so a) old cows aren’t safe and b) don’t assume because you have a negative test they’re always clean. I have had cows come up “suspect” on the milk test and negative on the fecal test that I have kept around for another year, but I am careful to not feed their milk to any heifers that I’m keeping.
As far as selling, I do sell all positive animals for slaughter, but not for anything else. Same for suspect. If they test negative but look like they could have symptoms they go for slaughter. If I’m selling breeding or milking stock I will not sell a mature cow that hasn’t tested negative, heifers it’s a little harder but I do keep track of whether they’re out of a cow that tested negative, and explain my system and the animal’s status to the buyer before the deal is finalized. You can never guarantee that an animal that leaves your farm is completely healthy and will stay that way, but I can and do make every effort to only sell animals that people will be happy with, from milk cows to bull calves.
Edited by Brown Cow 12/31/2018 18:38
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I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus... Johne’s disease... what’s a guy supposed to do?
