Watch out for the bottleneck

Management and disease in small ruminant operations that limits production

Abstract

Sheep and goats differ from cattle with respect to the diseases that infect them. In general, the common small ruminant diseases are chronic and incurable. There are a multitude of diseases that decrease production and efficiency of feed conversion, while increasing cull rates and death loss. The main disease issues in goat dairies in the US are caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV), contagious lymphadenitis (CL), Johne’s disease, and Mycoplasma spp infections. On a large-scale operation, these diseases must be prevented in order for a farm to be economically viable. In this article, we discuss how to successfully manage large herds and prevent future spread or introduction of disease into the herd.