Preventing the spread of Johne’s disease through a national control programme in Ireland has not yet seen a massive uptake on Irish dairy and beef farms.
At the end of September 2023, there were 2,216 herds registered in the Irish Johne’s Control Programme (IJCP), comprising 2,187 dairy and 29 beef herds.
This means that just 1.3% of the herds registered in the IJCP are beef herds.
The IJCP is operated by Animal Health Ireland (AHI), and is developing a long-term programme to control Johne’s disease within the Irish cattle industry.
Liam Doyle, programme manager of the IJCP said that of the 2,216 herds in the IJCP, 1,143 (52%) have yet to start any of their required programme activities in 2023.
The required programme activities are a veterinary risk assessment and management plan (VRAMP) and a whole herd test (WHT).
15% of herds have either completed their 2023 activities or are not required to do so.
As of end of September, there have been 114 new registrations to the IJCP during 2023.
Of these, 82 herds have joined the programme after receiving a letter telling them they had disclosed a positive bulk tank milk result for the disease.
Overall, completions of WHTs and VRAMPs for 2023 to date are broadly similar to 2022 levels.
Johne’s disease on farms
In a study published by the Irish Veterinary Journal on October 20, 2023, it showed findings from a questionnaire on farmers’ knowledge of Johne’s disease that was completed by 126 Irish farmers, who were mainly young farmers (aged 18-25).
They represented a small proportion of the total number of dairy and beef farmers in Ireland, whose average age is 55.
73% of respondents claimed to know what Johne’s disease was and associated the disease to loss of body condition (68%) and diarrhoea (59%).
28 respondents (mostly dairy farmers; 22/28) reported positive cases in their farms.
38% reported to implement management practices to prevent the transmission of the disease within or into their herd (i.e. management of milk for calf consumption and isolation of Johne’s test-positive or newly purchased stock).
A total of 18% of respondents were, at the time of the questionnaire or previously, members of the IJCP.
The main reasons reported for the lack of participation in the IJCP were not being aware of the programme (52%) and not having a Johne’s disease problem on the farm (48%).
The Irish Veterinary Journal study suggests that while young farmers are aware of Johne’s disease, their participation in the IJCP is limited and could benefit from further promotion.
Cases in NI
Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland has been enrolling dairy herds across NI in a voluntary Johne’s disease control programme since October 2020.
1,569 dairy herds had enrolled in the control programme up to October 2022.
Of these dairy herds, 21.4% had completed herd Johne’s disease screening, with 13.7% of herds reporting a confirmed case of the disease.
A further 31.5% of herds reported suspected case(s) of the disease. 89% of farms had introduced animals from outside the herd.
Herds that utilise a mixed calving pen and hospital pen, and herds that do not separate Johne’s disease-positive or sick animals within the calving pen, were significantly more likely to be a high-probability Johne’s disease herd.
Accidental mixing of neighbouring herds significantly increased the risk of a suspected or confirmed case of Johne’s disease in NI.
Herds that utilised rented land (70%) were significantly more likely to be at a high risk for the disease.