Three German dairy goat herds infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) were accompanied during the trial of paratuberculosis sanitation over three years. The development of the number of goats excreting MAP was documented. On all three farms, all goats older than 1.5 years were examined annually for MAP excretion by faecal culture, and all MAP-shedders should be culled. On farms 1 and 2, initially additional blood samples were analysed by ELISA and the reactors were also culled. Due to the paratuberculosis vaccination that had already been carried out on farm 3, this was omitted here. After the first herd testing, all goats from farms 1 and 2 and the offspring from farm 3 were vaccinated with Gudair®. In the following years, the offspring of all farms were vaccinated annually. All farms were advised to separate the kids from their mothers immediately after birth and raise them motherless.
At the initial examination of the herds, the within-herd faecal culture prevalence (FCP) for MAP in the three farms was 19.1%, 26.4% and 9.1%, respectively. On farms 1 and 2, the FCP decreased significantly to 2.0% and 8.9%, respectively. On farm 3, FCP was reduced to 6.7%, but the difference from baseline was not significant.
The procurement of sufficient quantities of MAP-unsuspicious colostrum and milk for motherless rearing, but also the identification and culling of MAP-positive animals as well as the rapid separation of the kids from their mothers after birth and the strict segregation of the different age groups proved to be problematic. Consistency of the farm managers in implementing the measures and good herd management seem to influence the success of sanitation. The observations in the three herds show, that the combination of the control measures test and cull, vaccination and motherless kid rearing can considerably reduce the prevalence of MAP shedding goats in a relatively short period of time, but complete sanitation could not be achieved.
}, year = {2023}, journal = {Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift}, volume = {136}, pages = {1–11}, month = {07/2023}, publisher = {Schlütersche Fachmedien GmbH}, address = {Hannover}, issn = {1439-0299}, doi = {10.2376/1439-0299-2022-24}, language = {English}, }