Advice for dairy farmers: Teagasc shows it’s a long road to control Johnes disease

Four years of a Johne’s disease control programme on a Teagasc dairy research farm have highlighted the long-term nature of control programmes for the disease.

According to a report in the TResearch Teagasc magazine, by researchers Aideen Kennedy, Ríona Sayers, and Noel Byrne, this long-term nature of control should be highlighted to all farmers and veterinarians planning programmes, in order to prevent unrealistic expectations and subsequent distrust of such schemes.

Johne’s disease (JD) is a chronic incurable diarrhoea caused by a mycobacterium called MAP.