Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Johne's disease in cattle - how common is it in south west England?
By Cetinkaya, B et al.·Published in The Veterinary record·1994·Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: A practice-based survey of the frequency of Johne's disease in south west England.
Plain-English summary
A recent survey looked at how common Johne's disease, which affects cattle, is in south west England. The survey involved interviews with veterinarians and farmers, and about 82% of them responded. It found that only 1% of farms had cattle showing signs of the disease, with about 2% of those infected herds developing new cases each year. The results were consistent with other methods of diagnosis, like checking feces and post-mortem examinations. However, the survey may have overestimated the total number of cattle farms, which could mean the actual number of affected farms is a bit higher than reported.
Abstract
The frequency of Johne's disease in cattle in south west England was estimated from data collected by telephone interviews with veterinarians and farmers. The response rate was 81.6 per cent. The disease frequency was expressed as the proportion of farms with clinical disease and the cumulative incidence in the infected herds. The proportion of farms affected was 1.0 per cent and the cumulative incidence on those farms was 1.9 per cent per year. Similar values were obtained when diagnosis by faecal examination, post mortem examination and histology was taken into consideration; 0.9 per cent of farms were affected and the cumulative incidence in the infected herds was 2.0 per cent per year. The survey was validated against three external reference points. There was good agreement between the use of vaccine and MAFF records, and the total number of holdings and census data. When the responses of the veterinarians were compared with those of farmers there was also good agreement on the use of vaccine (kappa = 77.8 per cent), the number of cases reported in the last year of diagnosis (r = 0.78) and the total number of cattle in the herds (r = 0.75). However, the results suggested that the total number of cattle holdings was overestimated and consequently the proportion of farms affected may have been underestimated.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8073592/