JOHNE’S DISEASE.

Waipa Post, Volume III, Issue 104, 23 April 1912, Page 4

JOHNE’S DISEASE.

AN INCURABLE COMPLAINT

Johne’s disease, a very virulent disease of the bowels is reported to have appeared in various dairy herds in Canada, especially in importations from the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, and for the reason that we also have made importations, reference to the matter is of interest. To date, so far as Canadian veterinarians have discovered, the disease is absolutely incurable, it may be described in brief as a very aggravated form of scours, which lasts until the animal dies.

The following, taken from the London “ Daily ” is of interest in this connection : Interesting information as to a cattle disease which has been the subject of investigation in recent years is being given by Dr F. W. Twort, superintendbnt of the Brown Animal Sanatory Institution, University of London, in a series of lectures at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Johne’s disease, as it is called, Dr Twort explained in his first discourse, is a serious infection. The animal’s intestine becomes chronically inflamed, with very marked thickening, the result being that the animal ceases to absorb the nourishment from its food, and becomes very thin. The yield of milk diminishes, and eventually the animal dies. An important point, continued the lecturer, was that the disease, unlike tuberculosis, did not extend to other parts of the body, proving conclusively that it could not be a form of tuberculosis. In this connection experiments had incidentally brought out the marked difference between the human and the bovine tubercle, and were particularly interesting in view of Professor Koch’s statement, met with a storm of abuse in this country, that the human and bovine tubercle baciili were different organisms, and therefore the bacilli of tuberculosis was communicated by man to man, and not through .the milk supply. The Johne’s disease affected bovines of all ages, but usually was not present in very young animals.

The animal probably could never get infected through the milk supply, and was, therefore, not likely to be infected until after it had ceased to take the cow’s milk. The disease might last for two, or even three, years before the symptoms were manifested ; neither did it show itself in any way by which it could be diagnosed in its early stages. It was prevalent in most countries ; in Denmark as many as 5 to 8 per cent of the cattle on some farms died annually of it. It was also very serious in the Channel Islands, especially in Jersey, to ail intents and purposes, was entirely free from tuberculosis. Since 1906, when it was fully described to the National Veterinary Association, the disease had been recognised by a number of British workers, and was now quite well known here.

Dr. Twort proceeded to detail the researches which he and Mr G. L. Ingram had been conducting at the Brown Institution laboratories. The micro-organ-ism causing Jone’s disease bears many resemblances to the baciili causing human leprosy and rat leprosy, and the investigations have been carried out in connection with the bacilli of these three diseases at the same time.