Johnes testing Q

[milkmaid]

If someone were wanting to have a group of springing heifers tested for Johnes via a blood test, are there any recommendations for the best place/price to have the tests done? Cheapest I've found so far is Ag Health Labratories at $4.75/hd.

TIA

 

[hillsdown]

Blood tests are not conclusive and your animals are too young to show the presence of the disease definitively. Usually they like to test at 3 years and up unless the dam tested positive for the disease.

We were involved in a government study for dairy cattle 10 years ago and the only animals acceptable to test were 5 years old and up ,also it was all done by fecal samples. Surprisingly our herd tested 100% negative (with reasonable accuracy) at that time.

 

[TheBullLady]

We had a similar situation here in Texas a few years back. Texas A & M was doing research on Johnes and offered free herd testing. They would only test cows 3 + years old.

 

[milkmaid]

We had a similar situation here in Texas a few years back. Texas A & M was doing research on Johnes and offered free herd testing. They would only test cows 3 + years old.

We had something like that in Idaho too... but government funding ran out.