Another decade before hope of stopping Johne's

IT COULD be ten years before research helps bring Johne's disease – a progressive wasting condition in livestock – under control.

That was the assessment of Dr Douwe Bakker, leader of a massive research project, speaking at a conference in Inverness yesterday.

Scientists from Europe were joined by others from New Zealand and Argentina as they presented findings from the four-year 4.5 million scheme investigating paratuberculosis.

Bakker said one of the big hurdles was that while the disease is spread throughout almost all the livestock producing countries in the world, the actual incidence of Johne's was difficult to determine.