Each farm has to make decisions for themselves. For me it's alot like Tracy said, until they give us a 100% test, and no, PCR or Elissa are neither, no matter how they are marketed, than yes I would likely start raising raw, not because I think the goats would be any healither, but because it would be soo much less work.
But our tests are not telling us if your goats have disease or most importantly if they will ever have it, and until they can tell us this, we are all just guessing. Mycoplasma is also passed in the milk and colostrum and there is no testing for this until the doe comes down with it. It would wipe me out faster than having either CAE or CL. I am going to start testing for Johnnes, do I think my goats are positive for Johnnes? No, but too many of my milk customers are getting information about Johnnes on the internet, and so to playcate them I am going to test, and I likely will test the milk of all my milkers this year.
Not raising my goats heat treated and pasturised and away from adult stock, which is the only prevention proven to stop disease, would put me out of business...oh I could still sell milk, cheese, make soap and lotion, and sell a kid here or there, but not for what I get now.
There are a small handful of big breeders who don't care about CAE, one which has had a scratch or two at the big spotlight sales because her animal tested positive at the function...for her it's no big deal and those who purchase from her know this, for me it would blackball me. Another breeder who lets her kids nurse, and openly admits this on another list, sells her animals for 1/2 of what I even get for mine, perhaps because she has American's also this adds to it, perhaps because they are mama raised wild/skitish (which for me is the same thing)??
It's simply not worth the less amount of profit (that 4 letter word again
for the 12 weeks of work, and if you put this up against the lifetime of the doe, 12 years old, still kidding and milking, it's nothing. It also shows that if our pasturised and heat treated does are living healthy, clean kneed, milking uddered lives until 12 years...they live longer but rarely kid and milk afterwards..then heat treating the colostrum and pasturising the milk isn't impacting their quality of life in the least.
Huge difference between breast feeding and feeding bottles of synthetic formula, and heat treating and pasturising...we only hold the colostrum until it is known to kill virus, not kill immunity (why also you will have infants testing positive for CAE, temporarily) we pasturise the milk, now we know that we aren't even using temps high enough to kill Johnnes, to 165 for 15 seconds.
Milking Mom, like Stacy said if you had does when tested for CAE who had no titer raise (0), on their made up scale, I know Ric had these when testing his kids he purchased this year, than yes I would take the chance...but you also have to weigh this with the fact of what buck you have right now$$$ (you should be able to see dollar signs in his pupils) Sorry but I would not purchase a buckling from you (well I don't have Alpines) if as a new person (I know you aren't new, but new...well you know
if you didn't heat treat and pasturise.......................so my honest opinion on this is that you need to play the game to pull the kind of money off your buck kids (especially) and your does that you can with the bloodlines you have! That and get them pretty does and daughters into the show ring
But in the end it's up to everybody to manage thier own herd, nothing right or wrong about the way anyone does it, just all different. Vicki
So, now I can tell her why I am going to pasteurize my babies milk and sound half way intelligent about it. Can't wait to see those babies out of Renegade and these girls. Turtle Dove (Who turns 8 months old this month) is turning out really pretty too. Dorinda keeps wanting me to show her. She has already won something....best in show or something. Can't remember. 
Her sire is Brynnestone Texas Messina Hof *B with Brynnestone and Cream-of-Kansas grandparents.
