JOHNE’S DISEASE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3898, 7 May 1937, Page 3

JOHNE’S DISEASE

LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS. The visible symptoms of this disease are only diarrhoea and wasting. An idfected animal will first have intermittent attacks of diarrhoea which will gradually become chronic. The wasting and falling from condition may commence at the same time, or a little later, .and as time progresses, become more rapid. The cause of the disease is a particular micro-organism - named after its discoverer; the bacillus of Johne. It belongs to a small group which is ailed acidlast, because they’ retain iye-stins under treatment which makes other organisms lose the stain. To this group also belong the tubercle bacillus, and at one time the disease was called psuedo or false tuberculosis. It is, really, quite a distinct disease. The casual organism gains entrance to the body when the animal is grazing over infected pastures and attacks the digestive organs as it passes through the animal, actually gaining entrances into the living tissues. It is passed out with the dung and contaminates the pastures still further. Thqae is no. satisfactory method of treating the disease. The organisms which cause the disease, invading the tissues of the animal, are beyond the action of drugs given by the mouth, and no drug given by infection has yet been found to be of use. The course of the illness will depend on the resisting powers of the animal itself, and the best care will only result in delaying the symptoms and progress of the disease. Cure is at present unknown and the spread of infection can be stopped only by the destruction of infected animals. Diagnosis does not depend cnly on symptoms but can often be confirmed by bacteriological examination of faeces and of smears from the mucous membrane. Control can be further helped by tracing up and inspecting animals which may have moved from infected herds. On farms valuable work can be done by breaking up and harrowing, so as to expose to sunlight, the manure, which is the infecting agent.