Caprine Health

FYI

There is a strong link between CAE and lack of copper in the diet. Before anyone knew what it was, the disease had been documented in the United States as a condition where the goat either had not received, or had been unable to assimilate, the correct amount of copper. It seems that a diet deficient in that mineral would predispose an animal to lateral infection.

My goats have always had supplementary copper since before the start of the CAE era (or what we considered to be the start). This was due to Dr. Alan Clark, B.V.Sc. who tested copper levels in my herd so we could establish the dietary amounts needed. Seeing the copper levels are correct would be a small price to pay in the control of this illness. In 1990, in the United States, St. Johnswort, a plant high in copper, was first used to help combat AIDS. Also in the United States, the very rapid spread of AIDS had been linked to inadequate copper in the food chain — perhaps due to the advent of plastic plumbing — caught the FDA on the hop. They had always assumed that most people got more than enough copper in their diets and found that when they tested AIDS sufferers in particular, they had only one twentieth of what they should have had (Acres U.S.A). Johnes disease, a simple bacterial condition also needs a copper-deficient host.

I realized that my management of CAE was working and about as bloodless as it could be, but still a nightmare. Others were not so lucky. A certain breeder who was obeying all the rules about separate herds, sheds, etc., rang me to say that yet again her goatlings had come up positive. I asked how much copper she was feeding: "None, everyone told me not to listen to you." I suggested that she take some copper and see if the goats were interested. She took out an enamel pudding dish full of it and 11 goats stood and ate the lot — after that she believed me.

When the copper level tests were done on my herd, I had about one third showing "big knees." Alan Clark and I confidently expected them to show low calcium/magnesium levels as it appeared to be an arthritic condition. To our surprise, they only showed low copper levels, even though I was supplementing with a small amount of the mineral. From these tests, we established the lower level of copper supplementation. I later raised the levels slightly in the diet after reading information from Japan that dark haired people needed six times more copper than those with fair hair (I ran predominantly black British Alpines). Over the ensuing ten years, while fighting to eradicate CAE from a fairly large herd of dairy goats, I had no lateral spread at all. The only transmission of the disease was by milk and/or colostrum. My goats have a minimum of one teaspoon of copper sulfate a head per week, this is run through the feed on a daily basis as suggested in this book.

Because of having to make my living from milking, I could not afford either to run a double farm (difficult if you are single handed) or wholesale slaughter. I had to do the best I could, which was to run a mixed herd. This I did for 10 years coming up to 1989 — and probably before that without knowing it. By the time I quit full-time milking in 1992, the herd had been CAE-free for two years.

I have used positive bucks over negative does and vice versa. I have, from the time that I was able to afford testing the whole herd, tried to feed positives together and negatives likewise. Even that came unstuck when someone gave me a negative which was not truly negative; she spent her youth and adolescence feeding with two negatives. In spite of that I have only had one case of a grown animal becoming infected and it was not from the supposedly negative animal. It was doe who managed to raid the bucket into which I put the first squirt of milk from each doe taken off before I start milking. I was called to the phone and, to my horror, when I returned I found she had slipped the chain and had milk all over her face. Two months later she tested positive having had, prior to that time, negative tests and two negative kids. She and another doe that was accidentally infected at birth were the last two before the herd was clear.

Probably the biggest cause of lateral infection is via milking machines. An article from La Chevre quoted in the British Goat Journal said that it had been discovered that for a few milliseconds, when the clusters are first put on, the pressure in the udder is lower than that in the clusters and the milk is sucked back into the udder. The newest cow clusters in Europe are now being fitted with anti suck-back shields to prevent the spread of disease. In this country Diversey now markets a small valve that does the same task.

So it is absolutely essential that commercial herds know the status of their goats. Negatives must be milked before positives. It is an ongoing program which must be kept up-to-date until the herd is totally free of the disease. Sadly, every country in the world, except apparently South Africa, has CAE. A run down but beautifully set-up commercial concern I saw in Sussex, England in 1988 had reached the stage where 50 percent of the milking herd showed clinical CAE (big knees). Status was totally unknown as was the fact that they had CAE at all. I had the unenviable task of telling them to get the vet in and start testing. The new managers (of two days) knew all was not well, but did not have the slightest idea of the cause. Once they institute a control program, a couple of years should see the situation well on the way to being clarified.

One excellent preparation called VAM (Vitamins, Amino Acids and Minerals), which is an injection available in Australia, enabled me to nurse my positives along so that they could bear their kids. It kept them going and feeling reasonable well when all else failed. In normal goats a two cc intramuscular injection lasts about two months. The CAE goats needed it weekly in some cases, but it was worth it to see them enjoying life.

Testing in the United Kingdom is easy compared with Australia because the test for Maedi Visna in sheep (a disease which is not in Australia yet, thank goodness) can also be used for CAE. The sometimes outrageous prices asked here for CAE testing have been a great setback in bringing the illness under control. Particularly in Victoria where there has been no Department of Agriculture sponsored scheme, as there is in other States.

Catching the kids may be time consuming but, in all cases of straightforward births, it seems to be successful. If the birth has complications and the placenta is broken inside the doe, there is a very real chance that CAE will have been passed to the kid before it is born. I know of two cases where the first one or two kids were "caught" quite successfully, but the last kid was born after much difficulty and it was infected — one was the doe referred to earlier in this section who was supposed to be clear. Kids from such births should be assumed to be positive until they are proven otherwise. Tests must not be done on kids under six months who are fed milk from negative does, and not before twelve months for kids fed sterilized infected milk. The latter must not be tested until at least four to five months after they have stopped having the sterilized milk. The dead virus will cause passive immunity which will show up as a positive in any test for CAE done before that time.

Kids must be kept separate from positive adults or those of unknown status until they are four or five months at least. Kids that suckle their dams must never be run with positives or goats of unknown status — one cannot be quite sure that they may not suck from the wrong doe.

Care should be taken at shows to make sure the judge’s hands are washed between handling each goat’s udder. Leaders must open their goat’s mouths for the judge and, if you are leading up someone else’s goats, make sure you wash before and after doing so.

Tattoo letters and numbers must be disinfected between doing each animal, particularly if they are goats or kids from another farm. Make sure that injection needles are not used on more than one animal at a time — particularly when testing for CAE — regrettably, I once had to tell a vet to use a fresh needle each time when bleeding the goats. These are all possible methods of spread.

In 1991 a further and very disturbing factor emerged, the ELISA test commonly used in detecting CAE picks up a similar signal if the tested goats are sick (with something other than CAE). Only after careful and exhaustive re-running of tests was this fact verified and so saved some perfectly sound goats from death. At last tests on milk are being suggested, the virus was first detected in milk so it is feasible and would perhaps stop any anomalies arising from using the ELISA test.

Catching Kids

Make arrangements for a special kidding area into which all positive does or those of unknown status are removed the moment they show signs of kidding. Have chains with snap hooks at head height on the wall to which the doe can be attached so she cannot reach the kid to lick it. Occasionally kids arrive rather fast. Have clean newspaper ready, catch the kid in it as it is being born and remove it as far away as possible — preferably out of earshot of its mother. Dry and clean the kid with the newspaper, rubbing it quite hard as this helps the circulation, then put the kid away to await its first feed. Some people suggest bathing the kid, I have never done it and all my "snatched" births have been successful.

If the kids are taken away in this way, so that the doe cannot see or hear them, it helps stop her fretting. Some people leave unwanted buck kids on positives, but I think it is unwise to take the risk if they are running with negative does as they might suck the wrong doe. One of the sadder aspects of CAE is that the does cannot ever suckle their kids.

Feeding Caught Kids

I have tried feeding kids cow’s colostrum, but felt that it was really of doubtful value (and it too, can transmit disease) as immunity is not conferred by any animal save the mother of the kid concerned. Heat treating positive colostrum is a tricky business and it only needs one mistake for the infection to be spread all over again.

I learned to make the first drink from either unpasteurized milk from a clean negative (of at least two generations), or pasteurized milk from positive does, which we all had to do at first. To the warm milk I added one teaspoon of cod liver oil and half a teaspoon of liquid seaweed concentrate (I use Vitec Fish and Kelp Stock drench or the product that Maxicrop put up — these do not have any additives and are the safest). The kids passed their first manure very quickly and never looked back on this regimen and at least there was no chance of some odd disease being contracted from another animal’s colostrum.

Heat Treating Milk

This can be done fairly easily by raising the milk to 165 degrees fahrenheit and keeping it there for five seconds. Use a cooking thermometer and suspend it over the pasteurizing pan so it is in the middle. My first whole season of feeding kids from positive does by this method resulted in all negatives. As mentioned above, do not test until the kids are a year old since before that they could show "passive" positive even though they are not infected. Unfortunately, far too many kids were killed until this fact was pointed out by a vet.

Even when the herd has reached negative status, I think it would be very unwise to feed pooled milk to the kids. They should be fed from a select few tested does who are several generations clear. We did, after all, hasten the spread of CAE, which has quite definitely been in Australia for nearly 40 years at least (since 1960 if not before), by feeding pooled milk. In a situation where does always fed their own kids, it could not spread so far or fast.

I remember one quite beautiful black doe that I was given, an excellent milker who showed absolutely no signs of ill health at all, no "big knees" (I would not have known what it was anyway at that time). I always used her milk to feed the kids. When she was nine years old the goats came under great stress from nitrate poisoning and up her knees came. Too late. Most of the kids had been destroyed because we soon learned that any kid whose knees came up — usually at six months or so — became an unthrifty adult, so they were never allowed to live once it happened.

The above story bears out what one of the vets who researched CAE here said to me. He postulated that, in herds where the management was good and there was no stress, he felt that up to 90 percent of the goats could be positives and show no signs until they died and possibly not even then. Many people tell me that they have never seen any signs of the disease so they do not test. But, as soon as those goats are sold to another farm — no matter how good the management — the stress of moving (if they are positive) activates the virus and they start to show big knees, lung troubles, hard udder or whatever.

Never buy a doe unless she is negative, with a vets certificate, unless she comes from a tested herd. A test done while a doe is pregnant is likely to show negative regardless because being in kid often temporarily suppresses the virus in the blood. Does should not be tested until at least two months after they have kidded. When I needed to buy two goats here, as I had lost most of mine in the move, I did not heed the above information. The doe I purchased was from a reputable stud, all advertized as being CAE free. I had to kill her and her two kids and by that time her milk had infected two more.

I have not gone into details of the disease from the clinical point of view to avoid confusing goat keepers with too much information. Only one fact should be borne in mind; for humane reasons, any goat that shows big knees should immediately be shot or otherwise euthanized. The vet who destroyed six of my positives some years ago emphasized this fact, because the post-mortem examinations showed that the first place to be affected by the virus is the brain (neurotic goats nearly always turned out to be positives), the second sign was spinal lesions and the knees were the last to come up. So by the time the animal’s knees showed the effects of the disesase, the goat was already suffering quite badly.

Bucks and CAE

It is obviously important that bucks do not suffer from CAE, therefore they too should be "caught." However, the vets in Western Australia who first isolated the virus and found that it was transmitted in the milk now say that it is not passed on by bucks and positive bucks may be used over healthy negative does. This bears out what I have found, I had to use positives over negatives and vice versa because I could not afford to do anything else. There was never any transmission of CAE at the time of mating in either direction. This is a merciful dispensation of nature, otherwise we would have lost even more valuable genetic material than we have already. Obviously we want our bucks to last well into double figures, which is what used to happen before CAE, so they should be reared CAE free.

First Generation Negatives

In my mind there is no doubt that these animals are not quite as robust as the later generations, especially if both the parents were positives. They have to be looked after extra well, after all, it is a small price to pay to be free of what is financially, emotionally and physically a ghastly illness.

 An elderly man in Phoenix calls his son in New York and says, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough."

"Pop, what are you talking about?" the son screams.

"We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the old man says. "We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.

"Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts, "I'll take care of this." She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at the old man, "You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?" and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife."Okay," he says, "They're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own fares ... Now what do we do for Christmas?"

A man left for work one Friday afternoon.

But, being payday, instead of going home, he stayed out the entire weekend partying with the boys and spending his entire paycheck.

When He finally appeared at home, Sunday Night, he was confronted by a very angry wife and was barraged for nearly two hours with a tirade befitting his actions.

Finally his wife stopped the nagging and simply said to him. "How would you like it if you didn't see me for two or three days?" To which he replied. "That would be fine with me."

Monday went by and he didn't see his wife. Tuesday and Wednesday came and went with the same results. Come Thursday, the swelling went down just enough where he could see her a little out of the corner of his left eye.

 Subject: Directors Update

Dear Directors,

The holidays are behind us and the new year is here. I hope you've all had a chance to check out the changes that were made to the web site. I took advantage of being able to renew my registration online and it worked perfectly! This is a great service for our members and we hope to expand to include more services in the future.

I have several items to update you on since my last email. The first items to cover are the two issues that required an EC vote. The first was regarding a joint complaint filed against an ADGA member for misrepresentation of pedigree. After reviewing all information submitted the EC voted that a complaint hearing needed to be held. This decision was unanimous. The hearing committee is in place and all parties involved are in the process of being notified.

The second issue requiring an EC vote was based on a request by Dan Laney to have the ADGA attorney draw up a Memorandum of Understanding for Nondisclosure regarding the release of the source code and data base pending the visit by the IM Committee. The EC approved this request and that form is being drawn up by Mr. Dalton. Let me clarify this a bit by saying that this type of form is common practice. The IM Committee, prior to their visit had expressed the thought that they would be signing a nondisclosure agreement. This type of form is for the protection of all parties involved. The IM Committee members will be signing this agreement before any files will be released.

On the subject of the IM Committee visit. The following committee members visited the ADGA office this week. Bruce Foster, Bill Marshall, Andrea Forrest, and Robin Saum. They spent Monday and Tuesday reviewing the ARMS program and evaluating the computer system. Attached to this email is their report and recommendations.

The next subject I want to let you know about is the New Breeds Task Force. At convention the BOD directors voted to have this task force formed. The purpose of the task force will be to bring to the board at the 2002 convention the various issues relevant to the acceptance of the Nigerian Dwarf. This Task Force is now in place and the following will be the people serving:

The next on my list is regarding the office. Dan informs me that Krystal Hammerich came in with the lowest bid for doing the ADGA books and our service for that will be switched to her for the coming year. Dan had hoped to have another customer service person in place at the office by this month. At this point in time he has yet to find a qualified applicant for the position.

That is all that I have currently, and will continue to keep you updated as soon as I have information to share.

Charlotte Sankey

I've been taking pics.......here a picture of a waterer that helps in keeping leaves, dirt, bugs out of the goat's water. It's a 50 gal. food grade drum. I left one of the screw caps off on the side so I could stick the water hose though the fence and into the hole for filling with fresh water. To clean I just roll it on it's side and pour out the old water after scrubbing the inside. A couple of blocks are bracing it to keep it from rolling around. The water does stay cleaner longer. Helps.

This idea was given to us by one of our members, Jenny J. Shelby Recluse on the Ridge

* Editor's Note: I don't think they use this where they have small kids.

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