Progress in national control and assurance programs for bovine Johne's disease in Australia

Cattle strains of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis are known to infect cattle , goats and alpaca in southeastern Australia, where there are also signific ant numbers of farmed deer. Although sheep strains have recently been ident ified in some cattle in Australia, epidemiological evidence to date support s the distinction (between bovine Johne's disease (JD), caused by cattle st rains in cattle, goats and alpaca, and ovine JD, caused by sheep strains in sheep and goats) for the purposes of control and assurance programs. The N ational Johne's Disease Control Program is coordinated by the Australian An imal Wealth Council, working with the livestock industries and with the Com monwealth, state and territory governments. The council also brokers indust ry and government funding for the program, The National Johne's Disease Mar ket Assurance Program for Cattle was launched in 1996 as the first of a sui te of voluntary national market assurance programs (MAPs) to assess and cer tify herds as negative for JD. By December 1998, over 550 herds had achieve d an assessed negative status. A MAP was also launched for alpaca in 1998 a nd a program for goats should be finalised in early 1999. National standard s for state control of JD through zoning, movement controls and procedures in infected acid suspect herds have also been developed. The paper covers f actors affecting development and implementation, uptake of and improvements to national control and assurance programs for bovine JD in Australia. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.