Ohio's Johne's Disease Demonstration Project
Environmental Sampling and Fecal Pooling
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21423/aabppro20064772Keywords:
National Johne's Disease Demonstration Project, broth culture system, hazard, beef herds, environmental contaminationAbstract
Ohio has participated in the National Johne's Disease Demonstration Project since the summer of 2004. Our overall goals included obtaining experience with and evaluation of the Trek ESP broth culture system, assessing the overall usefulness of culture of pooled fecal samples as compared to individual animal fecal cultures in identifying infected animals and infected herds, culturing samples taken from selected environmental sources to compare environmental "load" on the farm with apparent prevalence of infection in the animals and to determine if specific sites in the environment are more likely to present a hazard to young animals in that environment. In addition, we wanted to collect some of this data in beef herds to better characterize the disease in beef herds typical of our region.