Therapy for Johne's disease

Abstract

Several previous reports have described successful treatment of Johne's Disease but few, if any, have described successful embryo transfer during treatment. These cases illustrate that viable embryos could be transferred from cows while receiving isoniazid for the treatment of clinical Johne's Disease. Embryos were collected multiple times and resulted in normal calves being delivered. It is not known if any of the calves are infected but the probability of infection is low and all remained healthy.

Treatment of these cows did not eliminate infection or lesions as evidenced by consistently positive fecal cultures and biopsies during treatment and the periodic relapses.

Whether treatment was cost effective or not depends on the value of the progeny resulting from embryo transfers. Both owners have indicated they feel the effort was worthwhile.