USDA awards $4.4 million for Johne’s Disease research

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it will contribute $4.4 million to an international research collaborative seeking to control and eliminate Johne’s disease in cattle, sheep and goats.

The project, coordinated by the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, involves collaborators from two dozen other universities including UW–Madison, state and federal governmental agencies, and stakeholder groups such as the National Milk Producers Federation and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Johne’s disease (JD) is a bacterial infection in cattle and ruminants (sheep, goats and deer) that causes chronic gastrointestinal inflammation. Symptoms include chronic diarrhea and weight loss, decreased milk production, reduced fertility and, eventually, death. Approximately 40 percent of all dairy farms in the United States and one-third of all Wisconsin dairy herds are infected with the bacterium that causes JD, resulting in more than one billion dollars in economic loss every year.

Researchers at the School of Veterinary Medicine are instrumental members of the Johne’s collaborative team. Michael T. Collins, who has researched Johne’s disease for years, is directing the group’s evaluation of how the disease spreads and how it can be controlled. Adel M. Talaat, who recently joined the veterinary school’s Department of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences, is leading the group’s efforts to study how the bacteria causing Johne’s disease proliferates and causes illness once inside infected animals.

Others involved from UW–Madison include Elizabeth Manning and Charles Czuprynski of the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Pathobiological Sciences and Donald Sockett of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

Jeannette McDonald is leading the School of Veterinary Medicine’s efforts to offer continuing-education material online at http://vetmedce.org.