testing for cae in kansas

[silosounds]

Is there anyone in the northwestern part of kansas that knows of a vet that will
test for cl, cae. I cant find one they dont even know what Im talking about one said he could take a blood sample but didnt know were to send it . Im near Hays , Hillcity ,Norton , Phillipburg , Colby is far but might be worth the drive I really want to know if we carry this disease in our herd as we are only getting started and didnt really know about this disease until know .
terry

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Go to saanendoah.com go to the CAE information, print it out to take with you to the vet, it will tell them how much blood to take, what to put it in, to not spin it or add a fixative, and how to ship it. They will run the CL part of it themselves also. Or if you know anyone who can pull blood, a nurse, a cattleman etc., than you can do all this yourself. Vicki

[stormwalker]

Are you going to test for Johne's,too?

[silosounds]

yikes!! is this another disease I need to look out for this is going to cost a fortune to test for all these. Is this the same as contagious spongiform encyphalofothy
or cse?

[stormwalker]

Johne's is primarily a disease of the intestinal tract. You can find good info on google. You need to check with your state ag department- They may have a testing program for diseases that have a serious impact on the cattle,dairy industry-with little or no cost to you.

[silosounds]

is there a spicific office you know about or just call state ag office?

[stormwalker]

The ag office should be happy to tell you what's available.

[AnnaS]

This is the WSU CAE FAQ site:
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/caefaq.asp

I did just what Vicki suggested for my goats' CAE testing last year. Called the vet who said, "What's cae?" I no longer use her for another reason... Got the blood drawn at the vet's office. The bill was $70 for the whole thing, including $24 for the 1 Day Postage.
I was really glad I'd done the tests. I had bought these two from their breeder who said they were raised on CAE prevention... guess what... they were both strong positives.

[silosounds]

If mine our positive is the problem reversible or does it infect your ground I found a vet a liitle ways away and he'll do 3 goats for 55$ that includes the lab work too. I thought that this wasnt to bad for piece of mind.or not. He did have to look it up and research the percedure. Do you destroy the animals infected or ... Im a little worried because we moved into a farm that was used and who knows what dieases they had. Our chickens got dieases from the chicken coop so . We have reg. nuibians and we payed big money for our buck
but the lady who sold it to us didnt mention cae .

[Michiganrog]

Whatever you do - Do NOT send to Michigan State to have your test done. I had a lot of people tell me that they have a lot of false Negative results. and got the proof this summer when visiting a goat farm. She had origionally sent first test to Michigan State and they came back Negative. I insisted that I wanted test results from Washing State as this is where we have all our test done, and low and behold they came back strongly positive, She didn't like the results so had them done again at Michigan State and the same goats (yes more than one ) came back negative. By the way just because a person says they use Cae Prevention Does NOT mean that they do not have CAE in their herd. Found this out the hard way when we bought from one of the Top Michigan Show people. Never just take their word for something as serious as disease, akways ask to see CURRENT proof. I ended up giving a couple of goats to an older couple who wanted just milk goats and destroyed the papers.

[stormwalker]

Michiganrog-
Thanks for bringing up a couple of unpleasant but important facts.
I hadn't thought of questioning who is doing the testing. And, of course, you're right-ask for proof no matter who is selling the goat.

[caroline00]

you can draw it yourself and send it to Pan American Lab in Texas (look it up in a search engine) they also use the ELISA method of testing.

If you have older goats in your herd, who are healthy, I wouldnt go to the expense of testing for Johnnes disease. If your goats get sickly and die before ages 4-6, then go ahead and test.

For CAE, colostrum is easy to send to have tested... just put several squirts of first day colostrum, labelled in the freezer. When your kidding season is done, send them all in.

[stormwalker]

I have to disagree on the Johne's- I had a friend recently come up with a positive Johne's doe at 2 years old. This person is diligent, but when you show, breed, etc. you never can tell what you might come across.
By destroying the doe now- the contamination is more contained.

[silosounds]

Do you have to destroy the animals infected or can you treat cae and cl?

[AnnaS]

Animals with CAE don't need to be destroyed- they can breed, kid and milk normally and many show no sign of disease except for a positive test. BUT many of them will break down early and the "A" stands for arthritis and the swollen joints and disinclination to move (and therefore graze) that goes with painful joints. You have to pay a lot more attention & $$ to keep them in good condition that wouldn't be necessary with CAE neg. animals.
I know of a CAE pos. herd that has to cull its does at 5-6 years and a neg. herd with does still healthy and producing at 13.

To break the CAE cycle, you MUST remove kids at birth and feed them heat treated or negative colostrum and then pastuerized milk. CAE is passed on through white blood cells, which are present in milk. The kids should be kept separate from positive animals.

As far as where to send your samples, Washington State University is the gold standard of CAE testing. You'll see breeder ads that advertise WSU neg. tests on their stock- the people who are really rigid about CAE will not accept results from other labs.

CAE is caused by a virus, which are very fragile and will live only a few hours at most outside a host. CL is caused by a bacteria, and there are bacteria that can survive for years in the right condition. Diseases that will live in your soil are almost always bacterial.

[caroline00]

I'd get rid of a CL goat. The abscesses can break open and infect other goats...the CL can stay in your ground. We have friends with a very large herd that chose to manage CL a couple of years ago. Now it is out of control and they have almost 200 animals involved instead of a couple.