Compliance of Victorian dairy farmers with current calf rearing recommendations for control of Johne's disease

Questionnaires were posted to 800 randomly selected registered Victorian da iry farmers in 1996. Five hundred and thirty-four responses were received a nd analysed. Johne's disease (JD) had been diagnosed on the farm of 13.2% o f respondents in the last 5 years. JD was rated second only to neonatal dia rrhoea in importance as a disease of calves, even though other diseases occ urred more frequently. However, there was a low level of compliance with JD control recommendations by the respondents. There was no significant diffe rence in the number of JD control recommendations adopted by farmers betwee n the three major Victorian regions. There was a significant difference in compliance between farms having had a diagnosed case of JD and those that h ad not. Although there is awareness among dairy farmers of the importance o f JD, there appears to be a poor implementation of measures by farmers to p revent the spread of the disease. Current JD control recommendations and th e method of information transfer to Victorian dairy farms should be reasses sed to ensure that dairy heifers are reared with minimal risk of transmissi on of JD. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.