Co-operation the key in campaign to fight threat of Johnne's disease

A CONCERTED effort over the next three years will try and determine the best method of reducing the economic and animal welfare importance of a wasting disease in Scottish cattle. No-one knows just how prevalent Johnne's disease is on Scottish farms because there is no reliable test for identifying it.

Speaking at the launch yesterday, Professor George Gunn, the head of the Scottish Agricultural College's epidemiology unit, said often the first time cattle producers knew the disease was in their herd was when one of the cattle showed clinical symptoms.

This "tip of the iceberg" gave no clue to just how rampant the disease was in the rest of the herd. Calves could be infected at or just after birth and carry the disease for years before showing any outward sign of a problem.

Even the testing for the disease is not foolproof. While a positive reaction does confirm the disease, a negative reaction does not necessarily mean the animal is not infected, Gunn explained.

The disease, which is also called paratuberculosis, initially causes a loss of condition along with a loss of appetite. In dairy cattle it will bring on a drop in milk yield and the disease is always linked with severe diarrhoea.

While a recent European wide scientific programme costing €4 million had concentrated on tinkering with the existing tests to see if they could be made more accurate, the plan announced yesterday is to try and identify what causes the problem and how best to deal with it.

"We are looking at providing a legacy of best practice for farmers to follow," Gunn claimed, adding there was no silver bullet that would provide a quick or easy solution.

He claimed that providing a quick remedy was not possible because of the fact it could live within the host animal for years without being identified.

Apart from SAC, the range of skills within the co-operating group goes far beyond any previous exercise. It includes Quality Meat Scotland, DairyCo, who carry out research for the dairy industry, NFU Scotland, the National Beef Association and the Scottish Beef Cattle Association

Scientists from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute will look at whether there is a link between the nutrients in the soil and the disease. Scientists at Glasgow University will look at carcases in abattoirs and vets linked to Edinburgh University will be involved as they have a live animal vet practice.

The whole project, which will cost 800,000, will also focus of eight farms scattered through the main cattle production areas of Scotland.These farms will provide a meeting point where knowledge can be exchanged and where practices can be monitored to improve control of this insidious disease.

One of the volunteer "champion" farmers is John Lochoar who manages the Aberdeen Angus herd for the Macphies at Glenbervie. Yesterday he expressed his frustration over how difficult it was to eradicate Johnnes.

"Eight years ago we had a cow that showed clinical signs of Johnnes and since then we have been diligently working at eradicating the disease but we are not succeeding," he said.

In the 200 strong herd he said there continued to be one or two cows every year who showed signs of the disease. This rate of infection occurred despite testing on an annual basis.

The vet at Glenbervie, Billy Robson, said that while there were fewer cases of clinical infection being seen on farms, the industry was not getting on top of the problem. "We seem to have hit a plateau in dealing with it and if we do not raise our game then the problem will just roll on," he said.