My Frustration with CAE

CAE is a lentivirus, like HIV. It's progression to symptoms has been said to be triggered by stress. I have had a number of animals with CAE, thanks to dishonest sellers. None of them had the glaring symptoms, but I have seen some that did. My theory is that the virus may have been artificially selected for a type that causes fewer symptoms as people culled goats who showed bad symptoms, whereas the "sleepers" squeezed by, got sold, were bred, etc. Thus, the fast acting strains of the virus would have been subjected to stronger "weeding out".

CAE is a pain to deal with. A lot of people do not take full precautions, pull the kid after it has nursed, are not sufficiently on top of things when pasteurizing milk, run positive and negative stock together, etc. If I bought stock again, I would be asking for whole herd test results from the past 5-10 years, from a breeder with a reputation for extreme honesty and integrity. I would buy my does from that herd and as soon as I could, breed via A.I. and raise up my own bucks, keep a closed herd. Some of it is simple wishful thinking on the sellers, but I have been burned so badly that I would need to be extremely certain that there were NO positive animals on the place at ALL, for years, in order to get back into goats. Also, apparently sheep and alpacas have their own viruses that cross over to and from goats. I am not sure if OPV is the same as CAE or not....but again....vigilance despite temptation.

CAE is a particular issue to me because I prefer to dam raise, and that can only be done when CAE- status is 100% assured. I dislike very much the trend towards always bottle feeding replacement does, think we are breeding mothering ability out of our goats.

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http://upwardlypoor.blogspot.com/

Actually, WADDL says that they have not found any correlation between the level of antibodies and whether or not the animal ever shows symptoms.

I would speculate that a newborn ingesting CAE+ colostrum might be an example. The immune system is not developed, and may not have a sufficient response to the presence of the virus. As the baby gets older, and the immune system does develop......the virus has always been present, so the immune system does not see it as something "foreign" so it does not react to the presence of the virus. Perhaps that may be one way in which a low level of antibodies may exist in an animal with symptoms. :shrug"...just speculating.....

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

Each person needs to do what they believe is the best course of action for themselves and their animals..

Some national champions have been CAE + animals.......so, someone must have thought that the animal was worth keeping.......and believed it was important to keep those genetics in their herd.

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

I never said anything about using statistics to make mangment decisions. I pointed to the statistics to illustrate the deficiency in information that we have to make the best management decisions.

The statistics were used to point out the need for tests to distingusih between animals that have been merely exposed to the disease.........from the animals that actually have the disease.

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

Along with the advantages of raw milk over pasteurized milk. There were many studies done with animals and children that demonstrated the benefits. Probably the most extensive studies were done with cats by Pittenenger (sp?). Now there are the studies coming out of Europe that show that children drinking raw milk have a 40% lower rate of asthma, and 50% lower rate of other allergies. But this is 'thread drift.'

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry