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Equine Passport News
 Animal ID/Johne's
Equine Microchip Initiative
 BVD Testing Update
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 Volume 3, Issue 2  (Fall 2007)

ANIMAL ID / JOHNE'S

Tennessee Animal Id Program Update

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a voluntary, producer- and industry-driven initiative to provide state and federal animal health officials with the means to quickly trace animal movements and to respond to a serious animal disease outbreak.  We are fortunate in Tennessee to have the support of this initiative from our Governor, Commissioner of Agriculture, and General Assembly with programs such as the assistance under the TAEP for cattle improvement or diversification projects, livestock producers must register their premises with the NAIS.  This program is helping to build awareness of the NAIS and increasing the number of participating farmers-more than 14,000 so far.  The TAEP also affords many cost sharing opportunities for practicing veterinarians as follows:

  1. Cattle Herd Evaluator

  2. Cattle Artificial Inseminator

  3. Bull Breeding Soundness Exams and Identification with ISO approved 15 digit Radiofrequency devices

  4. Equine Microchip Initiative - See explanation elsewhere in this newsletter

  5. A cost share program including cattle handling equipment, mobile vet units, scanners and software related to NAIS

  6. Age and source verification and preconditioning feeder cattle initiative

USDA is indicating that they expect to integrate animal identification into program diseases and regulatory work starting as early as this fall.  More specifically, the premises identification number or PIN and the animal identification number or AIN will be used as unique identifiers in all program diseases.  This new direction that USDA is taking should give accredited veterinarians an increased role in NAIS.

For more information, call Jennifer Bowers at (615) 837-5189 or Dr. Charlie Hatcher at (615) 837-5183.

Tennessee Voluntary Johne’s Disease Program Update

Funding by USDA for the Tennessee Voluntary Johne's Disease Program (TVJDP) continues to decrease.  The Lab is still able to provide whole herd and individual blood testing but can only perform whole herd fecal testing for Status Herds.  Status herds are beef or dairy herds that have enrolled into the TVJDP and have tested negative for Johne's disease over several years.  However, submissions of individual fecal or environmental samples are still being accepted to aid in diagnosis of Johne's disease.

The following is a list of Johne's disease tests available:

  1. The Idexx Elisa Test – utilizes serum, primarily to be used as a screening tool and generally a positive needs to be confirmed with a fecal culture.

  2. The Bactec Midget fecal culture system - utilizes fecal material or environmental samples, this relatively new test can show a “hot” positive within 7 days.  However, you need to allow up to 42 days for complete results. This is still much better than the previous 12-16 weeks required for complete results with the old slant culture tubes. You will also notice that when the lab reports positive fecal culture results, we have attempted to quantitate the relative bacterial load by classification as heavy, moderate or light shedders.  It is extremely important to identify heavy shedders and remove them from the herd.  Remember to submit fecal cultures in sealed containers to prevent contamination.

  3. The Biocor Test -this test is for sheep and goats and utilizes serum. The demand for this test continues to increase.  Tennessee is second in goat population only to Texas.

For more information visit our Johnes website at tennessee.gov/agriculture/johnes or call Dr. Charlie Hatcher at (615) 837-5183.