Hello. I am new to NDDG and only 1 year into owning my little guys. We started out with 2 wethers to keep our horse company and then added 2 does a few months later with the intension to breed them. When we bought our wethers we bought them from a ND breeder who is extremely knowledgeable, she shows her goats all over, and they have one numerous titles. Our does are from a little self-sustainability farm who breed her doe to a buck from the farm she bought her first ND from. Anyhow, I haven't tested my herd for CAE/CL, Johne's and Brucellosis as of yet and emailed off my vet to ask about pricing (I've already been over charged for testing by them before). My vet told me back in the fall that my ND were still too young to test for Johne's, it usually is not something that is detected until they are a little older (they were only about 4-5 months old at that point). The response I got confuses me it is as follows-
You need proof that the new ones are tested, not just someone says they are; Johnes (Mycobacterium paratuberculosis) is in the soil and some owners say they are negative, when they really are not. CL (Caseous Lymphadenitis) Dr. examines for on every single examination; it can reside in lymph nodes anywhere in the body. We can run the tests for CAEV (elisa) and Johnes' at Cornell. They are young and may not shed Johnes in their feces yet, but we can do an AGID on each, and the herd that they came from should have proof of Johnes testing (fecal culture is best).
Are the current goats all from MA? I believe they have to be >6, 18 or 24 mo old to test for transport out of state. Ma is a Brucellosis free state ( meaning the USDA-APHIS had eradicated the disease here), so if they're from here and staying here, we don't have to test for it. If you still want to test, a Brucella abortus test is indicated. We need to check with the state vet and Cornell to find out what's best right now.
Will any of them be leaving the state for breeding?
You may also want herd ID numbers for your herd, for Scrapie disease (the zoonotic prion) also from the USDA office in Sutton. There are a lot of criteria to follow if you want to certify your herd "free" (meaning no disease) and it takes at least 5 years. They will be more valuable (to buyers and breeders) if they are. The USDA website is a good resource for you. Meat and milk animals and the unusual ruminant diseases make this all a little more complex. If Milk is collected, it needs to be pasteurized before drinking it. Raw, unpasteurized milk used to be the main source of TB in the US and still could be. It also kills CAEV, so kids should always have pasteurized milk/colostrum from the does, to prevent vertical transmission of disease (from doe to kid).
the road call
$16 per Johne’s test
$26 per CAE/CL test
$34 per Brucellosis test
$36 (one fee) for overnight shipping to Cornell
There may also be a state requirement of two Brucella tests within a few days. That would require a second road call and second test ($34) on each herd member plus the $36 shipping.
I am confused, they didn't want to test my goats last year at the age of 4-5 months but they want me to test the new ones I am getting at 8 weeks old?
Yes, I want to breed quality goats, yes I want to have quality milk but is it really this expensive. I have a small herd- 4 goats currently with 2 more coming this summer. Can anyone provide some light on testing??? I want to make sure I do this right but I really don't need the huge vet bill to go with it. I was already hit with a test that cost me $200.00 that they didn't tell me was $200.00 until the bill came in, however, they said if they knew it was $200.00 they still would have recommended.
I thank you for any information you can provide on testing your herd, what to test for, what to vaccinate for, and how many of you do it yourself?
Replies
Just wanted to let you know also, there are some great videos on you tube for drawing blood on goats. This may not be as good as hands on, but may provide an option for you and give you a preview of what you are in for.
Thanks Deborah, wish I had known earlier. But I only did two and I am going to do a few at a time as they get older and as I start breeding them so I can just redo those two at WADDL next time. I just need to figure out exactly which things I want to test for. Shannon, maybe you can learn like I did. (you really want to shave the neck area when you are learning.) If you don't know someone that can show you then start calling some goat breeders in your area. Even if you don't have ND breeders around, I am sure there are probably some other goats around. If you have to look online. There is a lady about a mile from me who raises myotonics (Tennessee fainting goats) and I called her phone number off her website and talked to her. I asked if she did her own and when she found out I needed to learn she said she would show me so I said I could put two in a dog crate and run them over if that was ok and she was happy for me to do so. We took my big girl out right in the truck and she did it while I watched. Next she had me try on the smaller one. It was educational to say the least. It was real funny. We, especially I made a real mess. You have to move quick and you may end up with blood everywhere when learning but it's worth it though. Don't be scared, I just thought I would warn you about that part. We laughed it off, cleaned up and she introduced us to her beautiful herd and new spring kids. It turned out to be real fun. And I felt like I had a new friend by the time it was over. She is a very nice lady.
Thank you Deborah and Margaret, your information is extremely helpful. I love this site and the knowledge that everyone brings! I can't thank you enough for your information- now to figure out how to draw blood, lol. I can do it because it sure does beat the cost and now I know what tests I should have done rather than being told I need to test for everything under the sun.
Again, thank you!
Margaret, you can send that same red-top tube to WADDL to get all of those tests done on a single blood sample. Here is their homepage with links to prices and everything:
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/
Glad you asked because I need to find out some of this same info, but I can tell you this much. I ordered a starter blood collecting kit (in March 15.50 enough supplies for about 10 or 11 test) and sent blood samples in for cae & pregnancy on my first two does I had and it only cost about 22.00 . In fact the cae part was only 4 or 4.50 each the most expensive part was the preg test. It was 6 or 6.50 each and well worth it to find out we had one preg and one open so we could try her again with our new buck. So I am glad I did that part that way because now I know how and I can do it myself from now and also get my pregnancy test done whenever I want. But I do really want to find out about the other test, so lets see who enlightens us about this, because you have come to the best place to find out for sure. Shannon, I ordered my kit and sent my blood draws thru BioPryn. I found that online.
Personally I wouldn't waste my money on an AGID test for CAE from Cornell. Anyone who cares would probably want to know you did the ELISA, which is available from WADDL or Biotracking, and you can send them samples yourself for much less! In fact, one blood draw will get you all of those test from WADDL. Here is the info from them on CAE:
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/caefaq.aspx
The AGID has a really high rate of false negatives, so a single AGID is not worth much. Five years of whole-herd negative AGID is good, but when you're new, it's better to have the ELISA because it is much more sensitive.
If you only have two goats, odds are good that you could sell kids without any testing. Very few people ask me about testing. I know I lost a sale about 7-8 years ago because someone told me that she really liked my goats but wouldn't buy from a herd that hadn't tested for Johnes, as well as CAE, and at that time I'd only done CAE testing.
As for scrapie, you only need to get an ID number, which is free. Just call the state. It's just used for ID purposes when goats or sheep cross state lines or go to shows. You don't need to get certified scrapie free.