While I've been posting on my Facebook farm page, I am also posting my biosecurity testing results here on the blog. Currently, I use UBRL to test the herd. I like this lab! Affordable but accurate. Wonderful communication. Clear, simple instructions. Please note that I am not affiliated with them - I'm just a fan! I do still have blood drawn at the vet or have the vet come out, in the case of whole-herd draws. I hope to do this myself soon, if I can get over my squeamishness about needles being stuck into the jugular... Just to recap. I do not bring in many new animals. If I do, they're almost always from herds that test as well. I test all new animals. I currently test for Johnes and CAE only. I do not do a blood test for CL because it is so inaccurate but I can say that I've never had a suspicious abscess on the property or in the herd, ever. If I did, it would be cultured, which is a much more accurate test. This test (or others) can be done at buyer's expense. Truthfully, a serum test for Johnes is not all that accurate either, as described here, but since it is POSSIBLE to catch it via serum test in the subclinical stage and because it is such a horrible zoonotic disease, I choose to test for it.
Testing is not accurate on young animals ( generally speaking, less than 6 months; some sources say 1 year for Johnes) so I generally wait to test until animals are at least a year old so not all animals might be tested in the same batch. I am currently whole-herd testing every other year and catching new or young animals as they come in or get old enough. The most recent whole herd test:
Animals that were too young in fall 2022 so were tested later, as well as Faunette, who was new to the herd:
Lastly, the newest girls, who arrived in December 2023. They were bred and I didn't get to test them until after they kidded in spring 2024:
For more information on CAE, I highly recommend anything published by Dr. Sandra Baxendell. Here is a great piece. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/countering-misinformation-internet-cae-goats-baxendell-goatvetoz Some more helpful resources: https://johnes.org/goats/faqs/
Comentários