CAE Exposure?

[babsbag]

There are also animals out there that test negative for years and then suddenly seroconvert and no on knows if they can spread the virus when they were testing negative or not. It can take months or maybe even years for them to convert after exposure so I don't think anyone can be sure that a negative kid from a positive doe will stay that way. There is certainly a lot not yet known about this disease.

 

[newbiekat]

I forgot to mention that I did tell her to let the farm know that he tested positive. I do think she is going to put him in the freezer... Now, as for my girls... Generally speaking they should be fine, but I should test now and retest in the fall then and hopefully they didn't contract the disease. Is that basically the consensus I'm getting? Just wanting to be clear.

 

[Sweetened]

Thats my thought process? Testing yearly or viannually from this point on would be beneficial to you if youre trying to keep track of it.

 

[Onyx]

Would there not perhaps be someone in Europe then, who would know more about whether goats who are positive but asymptomatic pass this strong immunity on to their kids? Since it sounds like that's what breeders there are going for, more than immediate culling on positive diagnosis. It sounds like something that people who have been raising goats for generations would know more about, if they are following a "survival of the fittest" model. If this is something that Europeans don't worry that much about, that at least suggests to me that they have achieved a greater degree of asymptomatic presentation.

 

[babsbag]

I don't believe that Europe has any better information than the US. What I do know is that they take the disease more seriously and cull heavily. In Switzerland a goat with CAE symptoms is rare because in 1984 they voluntarily culled positive animals and they went from a 60-80 % positive to about 1% positive. They haven't bred genetically superior stock, quite the opposite; they have culled heavily and it paid off and they aren't the only country that did this. European countries actually work together to try and eradicate this disease.

They are now pretty certain that kids can contract CAE in utero or through birthing fluids and if that is the case how good is the CAE prevention? And since a positive doe can pass it on when no symptoms are present then unless everyone tests AND culls or simply doesn't breed those goats or keeps them as a separate herd then the disease will continue to be proliferated.

Culling is never easy but if you sell a positive goat to someone as pet even with full disclosure you have no way to guarantee that they won't go ahead a breed her and then her kids are positive too. That is no good for anyone or for goats in general; that is why I still say culling is the only way to control this disease.

There are some breeds that appear to have a natural immunity, but none of the standard breeds you will find in the US.

 

[OneFineAcre]

I don't believe that Europe has any better information than the US. What I do know is that they take the disease more seriously and cull heavily. In Switzerland a goat with CAE symptoms is rare because in 1984 they voluntarily culled positive animals and they went from a 60-80 % positive to about 1% positive. They haven't bred genetically superior stock, quite the opposite; they have culled heavily and it paid off and they aren't the only country that did this. European countries actually work together to try and eradicate this disease.

They are now pretty certain that kids can contract CAE in utero or through birthing fluids and if that is the case how good is the CAE prevention? And since a positive doe can pass it on when no symptoms are present then unless everyone tests AND culls or simply doesn't breed those goats or keeps them as a separate herd then the disease will continue to be proliferated.

Culling is never easy but if you sell a positive goat to someone as pet even with full disclosure you have no way to guarantee that they won't go ahead a breed her and then her kids are positive too. That is no good for anyone or for goats in general; that is why I still say culling is the only way to control this disease.

There are some breeds that appear to have a natural immunity, but none of the standard breeds you will find in the US.

@babsbag
I was watching a farm to kitchen program on PBS one time and they featured goat cheese from this very large dairy in Sanoma County CA
300 goat large
I checked out their website and they had ADGA National Champs in their herd in multiple breeds
If I remember they had 4 or 5 breeds
Was surprised they had CAE but they kept positive animals separated by two fences spaced like 10 ft apart

 

[babsbag]

Redwood Hills probably; but don't quote me on that. Don't know if they still have + animals but I do know that they show a lot so I don't know if they bring their + goats to shows or not. I understand wanting to save some genetics and if you can pull the kids and really have them be negative then ok, but if animals seroconvert years after exposure how do you know that those kids will stay negative; and for that matter how do I know that all my negative goats will stay that way too.

 

[Sweetened]

Thats a large problem, I think, would be getting people tu cull bucks and does worth big money who are show winners, and all their lines as things go. The other thing is the financial devastation it could cause for people heavily invested. Without a compensation program in place, even on a Voluntary cull, the losses are remarkable. In addition, you could lose entire breeds, not bloodlines, breeds, in the long run if one is more suceptable than the other. One could argue it'd be best, others can argue differently.

 

[SheepGirl]

In sheep, the Scrapie disease has a genetic component to it, so much so that your sheep can be genotyped to see if they're resistant to the disease. I'm not sure if they found the same in goats, but it would be interesting if they could develop something for CAE as well.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Redwood Hills probably; but don't quote me on that. Don't know if they still have + animals but I do know that they show a lot so I don't know if they bring their + goats to shows or not. I understand wanting to save some genetics and if you can pull the kids and really have them be negative then ok, but if animals seroconvert years after exposure how do you know that those kids will stay negative; and for that matter how do I know that all my negative goats will stay that way too.

I don't think it is an issue of the showing. Maybe some to preserving the genetics. I think it is more of an issue of having a ton of money tied up in a dairy and the fact that there is no problem milking CAE positive animals. Not sure how many positive animals they had, but I did remember seeing it.