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How To Prevent Johne’S Disease In Sheep?
Is there a vaccine for Johne’s disease? How about vaccination? There are vaccines for Johne’s disease, but they are not very effective. In fact, there are no effective vaccines for any bacteria in the genus Mycobacterium, including those causing tuberculosis and leprosy.
How does Johne’s disease affect sheep? Ovine Johnes disease (OJD) is caused by infection with the bacteria, Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. OJD is a chronic infection of the bowel. This causes the lining of the bowel to thicken and reduces the absorption of food. Affected sheep show severe wasting.
How long does Johnes live in soil? Although the majority of organisms die after several months, some will remain for many months. In fact research shows that MAP can survive—at low levels—for up to 11 months in soil and 17 months in water.
Table of Contents
Johne’s disease is a contagious, chronic, and usually fatal infection that affects primarily the small intestine of ruminants. Johne’s disease is caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis), a hardy bacterium related to the agents of leprosy and TB.
It may be spread in utero and can be spread between sheep and cattle and vice versa. Clinical signs of the disease usually show as thin ewes that struggle to put on condition.
Tests that look for the organism in manure include culture and direct PCR. Individual animals can be tested or a laboratory can pool manure samples from multiple animals and provide owners with effective Johne’s disease surveillance for a fraction of the cost of individual culture or PCR.
Johne’s disease is a bacterial disease which affects all ruminants and can be spread from sheep to cattle and vice versa. Infection usually occurs early in life through ingestion of infected faeces or milk.
There have, however, been two well-documented cases of Map infection in humans: a young boy with scrofula (Hermon-Taylor et al., 1998), and a case of widely disseminated mycobacterial disease in an adult male with AIDS (Richter et al., 2002).
There is no cure for Johne’s disease. The first diagnosis is often made at necropsy. Bacterial culture on live animals is not very successful in sheep. In goats the bacteria can be cultured about 60 percent of the time when they are present in the feces.
Ovine Johne’s disease (OJD) is caused by bacteria Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and results in chronic intestinal infection in sheep and goats. The bacteria are spread to other animals through infected manure contaminating pasture and water supplies.
Two basic types of tests are available for Johne’s disease: tests focusing on the bacterium (MAP) in manure and tests for antibodies in blood using ELISA technology. PCR on manure samples is more sensitive than ELISA at detecting MAP-infected cattle, but the ELISA is faster and cheaper.