okwalker
Active member
Hows your acorn crop?
Need some help on this one
- Thread starter Brad B
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
Well, the blood tests came back today. One of the four blood tested cows WAS positive for Johnes. The other 3 were negative. Now comes the process of testing, retesting, and retesting. Then fecal tests, to weed out the positives and carriers. I have never dealt with this before, and to be honest, had never heard of it until you guys posted about it on the board. I'm not sure what route we'll end up taking. Have thought about selling the whole herd, and starting over. At any rate, this has really put a damper on the week. Thanks for the help, and would appreciate hearing from anyone who has any suggestions or experience with this. PM me if you want to.
certherfbeef
Well-known member
Brad, sorry for your bad luck. You have to be sure that the cows are not shedding the organsim. It will live in the ground and you will have a hard time getting rid of it. Don't spread manure on your crop ground either. The calf out of that cow should not be kept. But there is a chance of a false positive.
That cow hadn't calved yet, and I haven't kept a calf out of her. I'm gonna look at what I can do to get rid of the organism in/on the ground. I may burn the place off, maybe that'll help. IF I end up depopulating, I think I'll let the farm sit for several months before bringing in any new animals.
Brad B":3o4c73le said:
If you pull the calf before it nurses there is a good chance you can prevent it from getting it. The depopulating situation I think would need more then a couple of months. Check with your vet or local Vetrinary University
dun
Thanks dun, I sent her on her merry way this afternoon, sold her as a cull cow, three more too that didn't look 100% . I've been in contact with Auburn U this afternoon. I was just going to sell out, but they think we can eliminate any cows that are positives or carriers without spending an arm and a leg. I still haven't made up my mind as to what to do.
I do know, I'll never buy another animal without having it tested first. We have had this herd of cows for about 10 years, and have never had a problem with it, until now. From what little I know, the calf is most likely infected at, or shortly after birth by coming into contact with manure from an infected animal. The only animal that we don't have, that we did when the cow that was infected was born, other than calves we've sold, was a young Angus bull that we used to breed two crops of heifers. If the old brood cows aren't positive, then that's the only place I know it could have come from. The old cows are on the home farm and have never shown the least bit of signs of the disease. Surely after almost 10 years they would have shown symptoms if they were positive, but we'll test them too I guess. At least we should have a certified Johnes free herd when this is all over.
cattle_gal
Well-known member
Sorry to hear about the out come. At least you know what it is now. Keep us posted on what you find out from the vets and the University on what to do once the disease is established in the herd and ground and so forth.
Will do cattle gal. I do already know that the only thing you can do, if you've got it other than sell out, is to test all the animals. You have to test them, (I think not sure yet), at least three times, to be sure they're negative. There is a strong possibility of false negatives, so that's why you have to test more than once.
SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE
Well-known member
Brad B":b7v878b8 said:
Hang in there.....
Sorry to hear about the herd. You mentioned that the vet took manure samples from the sale barn from cattle with similar symptoms. Did he say if the came back positive, or is that confidential? This site http://johnes.org/ has a lot of info on testing for you. Good luck!
