If moms are negative and kids never were exposed to any other source then they should be negative as well. Testing them is your decision. Some prefer to wait until kids become breeding age. 6+ months is testing age for most disease except Johnes. Johnes I believe is best after 2 years? Signs of infection usually after 4 years old. WADDL is good to do all testing in one place. Their web page will give directions on how to collect and store then ship.

 

i test goats over a year. or if they are new to me. try for 1x a year, but im a bit behind this year. ANy new goats are always tested. Its expensive but its worth it in my opinion even if all tests are not100% accurate i figure it helps.

 

I think I may test only my adults, thus excluding the kids (including sheep). At their age would the kids even spread these diseases to the others? I’m aware they would spread it to the pasture, but if the adults are negative I’m probably fine. I’d probably test everyone again next fall.

are these diseases spread through breeding?

 

I personally only do the biosecurity screen which is just blood. I had considered doing a pooled fecal for Johnes at one point but didn’t.
CAE can someone transmitted through breeding, but mostly blood or milk (like hiv), CL is spread from the pus so technically not through breeding but if either party has a burst abcess at breeding it would spread. Johnes is transmitted from infected feces, so again not exactly by breeding but technically if one party had infected poop on them it could spread them too.

 

I'm gonna do CAE and Johnes tests soon on all my goats who are 15+ months old. I won't test anyone under that, though. I'm not testing for CL. If I have anyone with abscesses pop up, I'll quarantine and test the pus. Since the CL tests are the least accurate (imo)

 

So would it be fine to test just my adults? Do you think buyers for the unborn kids would except unknown CAE/CL/Johne’s status for the kids if the rest of the herd is clean? I don’t want to waste money for it not to be 100%
I’m sure the kids would be clean if the adults were, bc the sheep have lived with the twin kids dam since April.

 

I believe testing over 6 months is recommended. here not too many people know or care about testing but i want to keep a healthy herd so i test.