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WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
5
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
X LVETS NEWS
In April 2015, Dairy UK and AHDB Dairy awarded a contract to a consortium of XLVets, RAFT
Solutions Ltd, SRUC and SAC Vet Services to deliver awareness and involvement in the National
Johne’s Management Plan (NJMP) – the Action Johne’s Delivery Team. Since launching in April 2015,
the Action Johne’s Delivery Team has engaged milk purchasers covering 80% of UKmilk produced
by volume to deliver the National Johne’s Management Plan. The team have also developed a new
website, leaflets, buying guides and webinars to help farmers, vets and milk purchasers understand
what they need to do to take control of Johne’s on farm and are working with the British Cattle
Veterinary Association to provide further veterinary training.
The NJMP was developed and agreed
by a technical steering group of leading
experts earlier this year to provide a
series of six strategies for Johne’s disease
control on farm. These strategies to
control Johne’s disease in the dairy
herd are:
1. Biosecurity, protect and monitor
For herds which have completed
appropriate screening tests and have no
evidence of disease, a robust biosecurity
and surveillance protocol must be
established to protect the herd from
disease entry, including regular vet
monitoring. It must be remembered that
with minimal surveillance testing it may
be possible to miss the arrival of the
disease and allow it to gain a foothold
within the herd before it is identified,
especially if the herd has management
strategies which would facilitate spread.
2. Improved farm management
For herds with low risk and low
prevalence, who are able to commit
labour resource to managing Johne’s
disease, work with your vet to manage
ALL cows as if they are infected and at
risk. Control the disease by breaking the
cycle of transmission from cow to calf
through management changes across
EVERY cow in the herd. This strategy must
be combined with robust surveillance and
reviews of risk.
3. Improved farm management, risk
assessment and strategic testing
For herds with a higher prevalence,
work with your vet to identify infected
cows for management earlier through
strategic testing. Implement management
changes to break the cycle of transmission
for these cows. As always, employ
biosecurity and biocontainment measures
with your vet.
4. Improved farm management, test
and cull
Suitable for low prevalence herds
wanting to quickly remove infected
animals from the herd BEFORE they get a
chance to spread Johne’s disease. Work
with your vet to adopt a culling policy on
top of steps 1-3.
5. Breed to terminal sire
This strategy may be suitable for herds
with a high risk and high prevalence with
no wish to breed their own replacements
or the ability/resource to manage the
risks through improved farm management.
This is not a way to remove Johne's
disease and its effects from a farm. No
replacement animals are bred, all cows
are served to a terminal beef sire and all
offspring are fattened for slaughter.
Replacements are sourced from herds
with lower levels of Johne’s disease. It
must also be remembered that on a farm
with very high levels of Johne's disease,
transmission between adult animals is
possible. It may still be prudent to
undertake testing to help identify cows
for removal. ALL calves produced in this
system MUST be slaughtered for beef
and NOT enter the suckler herd as
breeding animals.
6. Firebreak vaccination
Vaccination may be a short term option
for high risk, high prevalence herds as a
firebreak to ’buy some time’ until another
strategy can be adopted. However, once
a herd is vaccinated it becomes very
difficult to determine whether an animal
is infected as the tests cannot differentiate
between antibodies from vaccination
and infection which complicates disease
management. Vaccination must be
undertaken under the advice and
supervision of your vet. It should be
noted that the Johne’s disease vaccination
can interfere with the reading of the
TB test and some milk processors may
not collect milk from Johne’s disease
vaccinated herds.
At all stages of the Plan the individual
farmers are encouraged to speak with
their farm vet to develop a bespoke
Johne’s disease control plan for their farm.
Alastair Hayton from RAFT and the Action
Johne’s team said: ‘Helping farmers
improve their Johne’s disease controls on
farm will have a positive effect on many
other aspects of production, and so even
in these challenging economic times, is
a worthwhile step to take. We know
animals with Johne’s disease are likely to
be culled earlier, and are likely to be
affected by other conditions, including
chronic mastitis, lameness and high
somatic cell counts.’
In this first phase of the NJMP programme,
farmers will be asked to assess the risks
of entry, presence and spread of MAP
infection (which leads to Johne’s
disease) in their herd and determine their
Johne’s disease risk and status by March
2016. By October 2016, in consultation
with their vet, participating farmers will
need to have implemented one of the six
control strategies developed by the
Action Group on Johne’s.