Johnnes Disease

Ross,

Johne's Disease is also known as paratuberculosis and is caused by Mycobacterium avium.

Clinical picture is long term weight loss and diarrhea. Individual animal clinical signs are highly variable and vague. The diarrhea is usually thick and without blood, mucus, or epithelial debris.

If you are seeing the diarrhea only over a very short term look to other causes. Johne's infected animals are sick a long time and look like they are wasting away. In sheep and goats the diarrhea is not a common picture.

Only way to know for sure is to do a culture.

From the description you gave of diarrhea over only a week, this does NOT sound like Johne's to me. If it went on for months, then more likely. Do let us know the outcome.

bearkiller

What kind of grain ration was she on and how much are you feeding per head? Is she the last one left cleaning out the grain trough? High grain rations of feeds such as barley can burn out there stomach and cause problems such as that. Most cattle guys will tell you to be very careful feeding barley. And, good high quality alfalpha even if baled can contribute for sheep. I was at a show once and the owner thought she would treat her animal at the show - brought her some really good alfalfa hay and she wasn't on that hay at home and that poor ewe was an absolute mess by the next morning! I have even had a ewe pig out on a bale of alfalfa hay and bloat - had a post mortum done to verify that.

As for Johne's - it usually isn't eveident until the animal is over 2 years of age and then is a chronic wasting and as they have stated above they don't always even scour from it and it takes time. Also, unless the test for Johne's have improved, you can get false postives and false negatives espcially if you are testing a live animal. If I remember what I read correctly anyway. There is a really good site on this topic, and if I can find it again, I will post if for you...

Keep us posted.

We had Johnnes in a small group of barbadoes boarded at our place. They were used to train herding dogs, so they got a lot of excercise. They were under 2 years of age, and 1/2 of them wasted away and had to be put down. They continued to eat though. The flock they came from did many many tests for the disease before they actually got a positive result.... Very difficult to get a definate diagnosis. Of course, by the time they got a positive result from the test, those sheep had already been on our ground for 6 months. Our flock is cheviot and in the 4 years since, none of our woolies has ever shown the slightest sign of this illness. 6 of our ewes are 8 or 9 years old so they should be susceptable. However, our 1 cross bred ewe, cheviot x barbado, contracted it and we had to put her down when it became obvious she was also wasting away. Her daughter, born the year she died, is only 1/4 barbado, has successfully lambed for 2 years now and is fine. :waa: It is heartbreaking to have this in your flock, you try everything to help them :no: and they still just waste away. I'm convinced from our experience that the barbado are very highly susceptable and the wool sheep are not, at least not our particular breed.

I have had Katahdins for a little over 7 years now and have yet to see it in my flock. Prior to that there hadn't been livestock on our farm for about 15 years. I have heard of Katahdins that have had it and other wool breeds as well. But, I don't think they are any more susceptable than any other breed. If you keep your flock of whatever breed of sheep in an enclosed confined space and one of them was brought in with it - it will spread. So when you purchase your sheep I really believe in inspecting the entire flock of a breeder! Look for symptoms at the owners farm! And, I read this in an article by Peter Schroder (sp) and his thoughts are if you purchase at an auction barn you are very likely purchasing another breeders problems, that is why they are there. We run a closed flock with the occasional new ram and really try to avoid any such diseases.

The diet of those sheep sounds pretty rich - do some research on Katahdins and you find that they were orginally useto getting by on poor quality feed. Also, lush green pastures will loosen the stools up somewhat. Put that ewe on some poor quality dry hay and I bet she clears up!! Once she is cleared up then ease her back onto the pasture.

These are just my thought though - and I'm not a vet - so take it for what it is worth.

We've isolated her with another unbred ewe for company and have been giving her electrolytes as well as pepto bismol; three times/day, since Saturday
The diahrrea (sp?) has gotten a bit less runny but not great. I have noticed some whole barley in the stool from over 10 days ago!
She has a little coccidia and some one has suggested treating with Albon, Sulfadimethoxine.
My vet says stop treating altogether and lets see what happens.

She is a bit anxious being confined while all the others are on pasture.

Maybe the stress isn't helping either.

Any ideas?

Help!!!!!

The existence of Johne's Disease is unknown to many goat breeders in the meat-goat industry. The reason for this lack of knowledge is primarily due to the elusive nature of the disease.

Johne's (pronounced Yo-nees) is a contagious disease which can infect any ruminant species. The origin of the disease is unknown, it is world-wide, and it was first diagnosed in goats in the early 1900's. Johne's is a chronic infection that localizes in the small intestine, causing a thickening of the intestinal wall which prevents the normal absorption of nutrients. In goats, the symptoms do not appear until the last stages of the illness.

Mycobacterium paratuberclosis is the organism which causes Johne's Disease, and this bacteria is passed in the manure of goats from animal to animal via fecal-to-oral contact. Young kids are the most susceptible, and the disease remains unidentifiable for years after the kids have first ingested infected feces. Clinical weight loss in infected adults is the only symptom.

The symptoms are prolonged weight loss, lack of appetite, and depression, occasionally followed by diarrhea. Goats infected with Johne's frequently are more subject to heavy parasite loads. Any adult goat which is continually parasite-infected should be tested for Johne's Disease.

Clinical signs of this disease do not appear until goats are yearlings and sometimes much later. Kids can contract Johne's in utero (before birth) if their dams are heavily infected. Kids can also become infected through the colustrum and milk of Johne's-carrying mothers. Neither heat-treating colustrum or pasteurizing milk kills this bacteria; it is quite heat resistant, and like Caseous Lymphadinitis (CL), the organism can live for years in the soil and surrounding environment.

The appearance of the disease is affected by the dosage (concentration and amount) of bacteria ingested, the age of the kid, and the genetic make-up of the animal. If a kid receives a high dose at an early age, the kid will most likely begin shedding the disease in its feces and showing clinical signs of infection at an earlier age than a kid who received a low dose of the bacteria. Some goats are carriers and never show clinical signs of the illness. There seems to be an age-related resistance to Johne's Disease, but older goats can become infected, particularly in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

Generally speaking, overt signs of infection begin to show after many years of shedding the bacteria, particularly if the animals are managed well, with good nutrition, clean conditions, no overcrowding, and minimal stress in their lives. Once it is evident that infection is present, the Johne's-infected goats usually live less than one year and ultimately die from their inability to absorb nutrients from their intestinal tracts.

The timeline runs from birth to age one, no signs whatsoever; from age two to four, goats may begin to show signs of some weight loss but have no decrease in appetite until the disease becomes full-blown; and goats over age four who are heavily-loaded with the bacteria begin to look wasted. The mid-stage, from age two to four, is the really dangerous time, because those goats look reasonably well but are shedding the bacteria like crazy. Johne's is rarely seen in goats over seven years old.

There are three commonly available tests for diagnosing Johne's Disease. Culturing fecal matter to detect the organism is the most accurate, but the bacteria grows slowly and the test takes six weeks to four months to complete. If the animal being tested is not shedding the organism in its feces, it can test negative even though it may really be infected. Repeat testing on suspect goats is essential.

The AGID (Agar-Gel Immune Diffusion) and the ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immuosorbent Assay) Tests detect antibodies and are done on blood samples. Each test has its own shortcomings. The AGID Test should be used on individual animals; there are few to no false positives. The ELIZA Test is reasonably accurate but can cross-react with the bacteria that causes Caseous Lymphadinitis (CL) and give a false positive. None of these tests are 100% accurate. The ELISA Test works best as a herd-screening tool. Because antibodies appear relatively late in the disease, antibody tests in general have poor sensitivity. The ELISA Test is more sensitive, while the AGID Test is more specific, showing fewer false positives in goats which are truly negative.

The advantage of using the fecal culture positive test is that no other organism looks like Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, so false positives do not occur. It also tells other important information, such as how much of the organism is being shed. The fecal test is 40-45% accurate in light shedders; in heavy shedders, it is 95-98% accurate. Interestingly, the organism cannot be cultured in the feces of sheep.

Think of the disease as a pyramid. For every animal which tests positive, there are probably 10 animals who are infected, actively shedding, and not showing symptoms. This does not apply if an infected animal is brought into a clean, closed herd, unless the circumstance is not discovered and properly managed. Then it takes some time for this pyramid to build up, but it will occur.

There is no cure for this disease, there is nothing that can be put into the soil and the surrounding environment to kill the bacteria, and the only vaccine available is used in Norway and Iceland. The vaccine is not available in the United States because it cross-reacts with tuberculosis (TB) tests.

:waa: Well, it has been almost three months and the trouble ewe still has the scours!.
Still eating OK and her body condition is still good.

We have given the blood test for Johnes and it was negative; also done complete blood workup (CBC), and all systems appear fine.

So we treated her with Corid for her small amount of coccidia that was fgound and them wormed her with Ivomec,(we also tried Panacur in the beginning).... Diarreah appears worse!!!.
Next week, after speaking, ( in final desperation), to the vets at Pipestone we will try a dose of Albon, (sulfadimethoxine).

After that I just do not know what to do. We are still waiting for the Johne's culture to come back from Cornell, sometime in August, negative so far.


Any other suggestions?

We really do not want to cull her. She was an expensive registered Katahdin and a very friendly one at that. Every morning we clean her off before putting her out with the rest of the flock so that we avoid flystrike, so she doesn't mind being handled like the others!