This disease can become a real problem in dairy herds if not managed correctly. Many dairy herds in our area have had Johnes Disease animals detected in recent years. To ensure the disease does not get worse the following management programmes should be followed.
(1) Act quickly to identify and blood test cows that have symptoms typical of Johnes Disease. Cull positives ASAP as they are very infectious to young stock.
(2) Keep calves away from effluent paddocks.
(3) Never retain heifer calves from cows infected with Johnes.
(4) Don’t graze replacement heifers in the crook cow paddock or worse still, mix suspicious Johnes cows with young stock.
(5) Don’t feed colostrum from suspicious cows to your calves.
Johnes cows tend to show up at this time of the year, look out for them!
(Basically poor condition cows normally with diarrhoea).