Management Practices and Their Potential Influence on Johne’s Disease Transmission on Canadian Organic Dairy Farms—A Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

Johne's disease (JD) is a chronic, production-limiting disease of ruminants. Control programs aiming to minimize the effects of the disease on the dairy industry have been launched in many countries, including Canada. Those programs commonly focus on strict hygiene and management improvement, often combined with various testing methods. Concurrently, organic dairy farming has been increasing in popularity. Because organic farming promotes traditional management practices, it has been proposed that organic dairy production regulations might interfere with implementation of JD control strategies. However, it is currently unclear how organic farming would change the risk for JD control. This review presents a brief introduction to organic dairy farming in Canada, JD, and the Canadian JD control programs. Subsequently, organic practices are described and hypotheses of their effects on JD transmission are developed. Empirical research is needed, not only to OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2014, 6 8238 provide scientific evidence for organic producers, but also for smaller conventional farms employing organic-like management practices.

Comparative risk assessment for new cow-level Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis infections between 3 dairy production types: Organic, conventional, and conventional-grazing systems

“…Key research has been conducted to address differences between organic and conventional farming, but the focus has typically been on economic and environmental consequences (Pieper et al, 2014). However, several studies have dealt with management implications related to disease prevention.…”

“…However, the basis of these diagnoses is not described further, and the herd sizes of the conventional farms tended to be larger. Pieper et al (2014) reviewed requirements for organic farming in Canada and developed a conceptual analysis regarding the effect of these practices on Johne's disease transmission. The authors acknowledged the necessity for empirical research, not only with regard to organic farms, but also for conventional farms implementing relevant organic practices.…”

Detection of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in reproductive tissue and semen of naturally infected rams

“…PTB or Jhone disease is chronic consumptive and incurable, caused by MAP; intracellular mycobacteria of slow growth, Gram positive, anaerobic, which has 14 to 18 copies of an insertion element called IS900 in its genotype (Ayele et al, 2001(Ayele et al, , 2004. It is a disease typical of ruminants (García and Shalloo, 2015), although it also infects monogastric animals and wild birds (Ayele et al, 2001;Pieper et al, 2014), causing chronic gastroenteritis with lymphangiectasia and lymphangitis; these lesions generate the appearance of the syndrome of bad nutrient absorption, weight loss, chronic or intermittent diarrhea, causing weakness and eventually death (Chiodini et al, 1984;Whittington et al, 2012;Mcgregor et al, 2015).…”