Results are back....

[Shayanna]

And both goats are negative for CL and Johnnes, but Sage is positive for CAE. Demi is negative.
This makes me really sad as she is an amazing doe with wattles, a good temperament, and will to milk.
We planned on raising CAE prevention anyway... but what does this mean for her future? Can we drink the milk? How hot/for how long does the milk have to be to be properly heat treated for CAE prevention? Is she going to get sick? She was born in 2009. (Idk why that would matter. Just saying.)

[Hollowdweller]

Decision is up to you. If the doe is your favorite why not keep her and raise the kids on CAE prevention? There IS a chance of her infecting the others but it's not super high.

[Minelson]

Sorry you got the bad news I wonder if you should have her tested again.

["SPIKE"]

Originally Posted by Minelson

Sorry you got the bad news I wonder if you should have her tested again.

I was wondering that also.

SPIKE

[Sherry in Iowa]

Originally Posted by Minelson

Sorry you got the bad news I wonder if you should have her tested again.

I think I probably would.

[Alice In TX/MO]

RETEST!!!! Reactions to meds, vaccinations, etc., can cause a false positive.

[dbarjacres]

What lab? Definately retest at another lab!!

[Lizza]

Don't do anything until you retest! Which lab? How did you handle the blood? Like Alice said, any resent meds, vaccinations, or illness when you sent in the blood?

[LoneStrChic23]

What lab did you use? If I were to have positives, I'd retest just to make sure before I madre any decisions.

Did you use Biotracking? If so what was the titer? I like Biotracking because they give titer level. So if I had a doe test borderline (30 range) I'd certainly retest as I've seen vaccines bump the titer number a bit. If it was a high titer, over 50, I'd assume she's positive.

As to what to do with her, that's your call. The milk is fine for people. If I had a positive, BBB would not run it with my negatives. I'd keep everything separate. You can catch kids and raise on prevention.

You would have to heat treat the colostrum which is different than pasteurizing. To heat treat you must heat to 135° & hold that temp for at least one hour. No higher than 140° or it turns into pudding... If you drop below 135°, you gotta start over...... I use a double boiler, try to maintain a temp of 137°, stir constantly and never leave the stove until it's done.... It's important you get this right. Honestly, in a CAE positive situation, I recommend a good colostrum replacer (Not *supplement*, I recommend Kids Choice Total from Jeffers).

Patronizing milk for prevention is easier. Heat to 165° & keep at that temp for at least 15 seconds... I let it hit 165°, & stir for 1 minute to make sure all is heated properly, then I turn off heat.

You must attend the birth!!! I grab them as they are coming out, don't even let them hit the ground and whisk them away before momma can touch them......

Sorry about your positive test result You can get your herd to a negative status though if you are very diligent.... Hang in there.

[julieq]

Which lab did you use? We shipped in some ND's from Canada, where they had all tested CAE negative, years ago. When we went to retest the herd, our vet made a mistake and sent the testing to the local Idaho lab instead of WADDL, where we have always tested.

One doe came back positive, but we had sold her to another CAE negative herd. Got her retested at WADDL immediately, which came back negative of course, but it caused a huge stink there for awhile!

We won't use any lab other than WADDL for our testing.

[mygoat]

Most CAE tests are highly reliable from good labs. False positives DO occur, but are very rare - one in every few thousand?

However, if you used PAVL to test... I STRONGLY suggest retesting elsewhere. Tons of people (myself included) have reported false positives (or scarier, false negatives) from their facility.

As for CAE... it's really not THAT scary of a disease. Could be worse to manage like Johnes or CL after all!

I would personally tape her teats or put a bra on her when she gets close to kidding time. Be very good about checking her when she's due.

I would pull doelings for sure (unless they have severe defects that would otehrwise render the meat only anyways, like overbite/underbite, fish or extra teats etc), bucklings if you have a mind to. You *could* always just use bucklings for meat, and leave them on her.

Do NOT use her milk for feeding to goat kids! Even pasteurized! House milk only, or let her dam raise her bucklings.

It will NOT infect humans - your people family can use it to drink.

It CAN transmit horizontally between adults but it is also exceedingly rare. I know a few herds who have a couple positives, test the rest ever year and have not had it transmit in years of having a mixed status herd. It's all about good management. Do NOT let other goats access to her milk, and personally I'd dry her up as soon as possible, or have her dam raise her bucklings in a separate pen. Why? Because other dam raised kids can sneak milk on occassion. I see it all the time with my boers, even the ones that aren't prone to nursing just any ole kid... kids can sneak in (have even seen them come up behind adoe to nurse, or while the doe is distracted on the other side with her *real* kid.

Up to you if you want to manage it. I don't think it's the end of the world - I've had to manage it out of my herd, it was very easy the way I did it... I pulled kids, raised on prevention, and butchered the does after they dried up (too cold when they kidded to comfortably butcher, waited for spring). I kept them isolated. That was back in '06, everybody that lived with the positives initially have tested negative several times since.

[Shayanna]

tested at WADDL.. i didnt get the report yet, i just called. we plan on pulling kids before they even really hit the ground... what about taping teats? at least till the kids are away? no illness. never had a vaccination in her life as far as i know.

i mean i know its not a death sentence, but the people i bought her from? they never tested and dam raised sage's kids. so people bought sage's kids and didn't know. i think that is what upsets me. people bought her kids and didn't know. and all over michigan right now people are selling off their registered stock because of a positive cae result and they dont "have time" for bottle babies. shouldn't that be their responsibility as an owner? what if the goats aren't sold by the time they kid? will the kids just be sentenced to a cae positive life?

what i'm not going to do? be irresponsible. i said i would be transparent about my herd results and i will stick with that. but if i can, i will educate any body i possibly can from now on about the Need for keeping herds clean. can you become an advocate for clean goats?

i think i am rambling but i am fired up. i realize i was this ignorant at one point... but now that i know how serious it is. good news is, we plan on keeping any doelings from her and eating any bucks unless they are reserved so i wont have to worry about selling diseased stock. i will do herd testing again in 6 months. from this point on, any stock coming on to this farm will be tested FIRST.

[Shayanna]

another question... is the milk safe for pigs/ bottle calves?

[Frosted Mini's]

Fine for other species, except for lambs (unless they are butcher lambs, then that's probably okay too).

[Crazy Farmgirl]

Sorry for your news , as said though it's not a death sentence. Sadly I have seen MANY goat owners here in MI that are ignorant to reasons for testing or simply don't care, it is sad! I have dealt with several who would tell you anything to make a sale, I learned early on to require that I see the results on paper otherwise you really don't know!

It can be managed, that is your choice. As you said just be transparent with your testing results and the status of your herd!