Farmers are being urged to act on Johne’s disease immediately to ensure they are dairy industry compliant in time for an important 31st October deadline.
Johne’s Disease is a chronic, debilitating and irreversible infection of cattle which is common in many herds.
While as few as 1-5% of cows in any year will show clinical signs of scour or wasting, more of the herd will be affected and suffer reduced output.
Animals with Johne’s Disease are likely to be culled earlier, and are also likely to be affected by other conditions, including chronic mastitis, lameness and high somatic cell counts.
Following the latest meeting of the Action Group on Johne’s, who are campaigning to highlight the disease, Chair, Lyndon Edwards said farmers must sign the vet declaration by the 31st October.
Mr Edwards said: "There’s a clear view coming from the Action Group that there will be a lot of demand on vets over the summer months from a range of issues, so farmers need to act soon to get the signed declaration required by the National Johne’s Management Plan.
"From the reports we received at the meeting there is clearly a strong commitment from all major leading dairy processors in the UK to deliver on the requirements of the plan.
"We now have a strong foundation to achieve what we’ve always hoped for, which is to set the industry standard for action which all processors and farmers will want to abide by," he added.
'Meaningful results'
By 31st October 2018, all farmers supplying purchaser members of the National Johne’s Management Plan (NJMP) will need to have assessed their risks and herd status.
Farmers will need to put a written Johne’s disease management plan in place alongside a co-signed declaration of compliance with their BCVA Accredited Johne’s Veterinary Advisor.
Chair of the Johne’s Technical Committee, Pete Orpin said British dairy farmers can be "confident" that the disease is getting tackled.
"It was clear at a recent international conference on Johne’s control that we’ve adopted the right delivery model that has the best combination of supply chain engagement and flexibility at farm level to ensure meaningful results," Mr Orpin said.
"The advantages of our system was recognised by several other countries, some of which have decided to reconsider their approach in light of what we are doing here. It was also clear that there’s global competition to tackle Johne’s so we must stay ahead of the curve on this one."
