eastAUSmilk Johne’s Testing

BJD- Bovine Johne's Disease is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis(MAP). It causes diarrhoea, weight loss, reduced milk production and eventually death. It is an incurable disease and although mainly contracted by young stock, it is not often evident for several years, due to the long incubation period.

The dairy industry is working hard to keep BJD out of herds by proactively managing calf rearing conditions and being extra diligent with the importing of stock onto their properties. The Johne’s Disease Dairy Score was developed to help manage associated risks of infection, with active biosecurity plans and biannual herd testing.

Over the past few months, eastAUSmilk has been busy collecting samples from our members farms for their scheduled BJD testing. We have had 118 farms participate in testing, from the Atherton Tablelands QLD to Comboyne NSW.

It has been great to get onto so many farms and chat to our awesome farmers in person.  Getting to experience the diversity between different farms, due to location, available services and weather conditions, has given me greater insight into ways to support more farms moving forward. The high standard these farms are operating at is impressive to say the least.

Just a note moving forward, for those needing BJD test results for Qld RNA entries, testing needs to be completed at least 3 months before, to allow the laboratory time to process the results.

Many thanks to all the farms for working in with collection times and days, it helped make the process run smoothly which was much appreciated.

Letisha Johnson, eastAUSmilk Project Officer