The National Johnes Management Plan – What is it?

The National Johne’s Management Plan has been developed to help provide strategies to manage the control of Johne’s Disease on your farm.

PHASE II of the NJMP seeks to manage and reduce the incidence of Johne’s disease on farms through implementing one of the six strategies agreed by the group, and monitored on each farm by trained vets

Why bother?

Johnes is a complicated disease and any control strategy on farm needs to tackle all the possible routes of spread or we’re wasting our time, doing a bit of something without a clear plan is not going to control the disease.

Having a few clear strategies to choose from allows you to focus on the best approach to control for your farm and your situation – flying herd vs closed, high or low incidence of johns etc. The details of how the strategy works on your farm need to be worked out in detail – where do you calve your high johns risk cows, when do you test if you’re a seasonal calver, how do you identify high risk cows so their colostrum isn’t saved. This needs to be done with a vet who knows your farm as these details change but having a clear strategy allows us to show that we are controlling the disesase in the best possible way.

In addition milk buyers want to know that Johnes is being controlled and reduced at a farm level, a national strategy will have more effect than if they all come up with their own requirements.

What do you need to do?

Ruth, Ingrid and Chris are all BCVA accredited Johnes advisers so you can talk to anyone of them about the plan and the disease, as they do annual health plan reviews Johnes control will be discussed and the best control strategy for your farm reviewed.

In addition you may have received a form from your milk buyer about it - again St Boniface Farm Team are happy to discuss control and complete these.  Please feel free to call and discuss - 01363 772860.  In the meantime, you can also refer to the National Action Group on Johne's.