Affected animals exhibit lethargy, anemia, rough haircoat, flaky skin and occasionally bottle jaw or pendulant edema. The most common presentation of Johne's disease in sheep and goats is severe, progressive weight loss leading to emaciation in spite of good nutrition. The severe stress associated with pregnancy, parasitism, or environmental change may trigger clinical disease. The incubation period is very long and clinical symptoms are more common in animals between 2 and 4 years of age. In utero transmission of MAP has been documented in both sheep and cattle, but the percentage of goats born with infection has not been determined. Contaminated soil and bacteria-laden feces coat the teats and udder of the dam and are nursed by the newborn, while infected animals shed mycobacteria in both milk and colostrum. Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) can survive for extended periods in contaminated environments or in manure spread on pasture for over one year. Johne's disease or paratuberculosis affects both wild and domestic ruminants. These insidious diseases include, but are not limited to, Johnes disease, caprine arthritis-encephalitis, ovine progressive pneumonia, mycoplasma, caseous lymphadenitis, and scrapie. Infected herds remove the newborns from the adult population at birth, feed heat-treated colostrum and pasteurized milk or milk replacer, and permanently separate the new clean replacements from the infected adult population. There is no effective treatment for any of these diseases, and a specific pathogen prevention program has been developed to decrease their incidence. Direct contact can transmit these diseases between adults over time, but they can be transferred quickly from the adults to the young through colostrum, milk and direct contact. Several insidious diseases cause significant economic loss to sheep and goat producers through decreased longevity, growth rate, milk production and animal sales, and they are often purchased through inapparent carriers.
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