Johne’s disease Flashcards
What is the name of the bacteria which causes Johne’s disease?
Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis
Give some features of the Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis bacterium
- Slow growing, fastidious acid fast bacillus
- Long lived in the environment
- Weak host specifity strains
Describe the pathology of Johne’s disease
- Organisms localises within the submucosa and mesenteric lymph nodes of the terminal SI and LI
- Inflammatory response with the accumulation of more macrophages and lymphocytes
- Granuloma formation in distal ileum & LN
Describe the gross changes in the GI tract of cattle with Johne’s disease
- Diffuse thickening of distal ileum and colon due to fibrous tissue
- Thick, corrugated intestine: impaired absorption, leaky gut
How do the gross changes in the gut affects its function?
What are the consequences of this?
Impaired mucosal barrier function, malabsorption (& consequently diarrhoea), protein losing enteropathy (& consequently muscle wastage, hypoproteinaemia, oedema)
How do you diagnose a clinical case of Johnes?
- Has lost immune control: Likely to be ab +ve
- Infectious: Organism in faeces
- ELISA (Sens 85 – 95%)
- Faecal culture
Describe the key points of Johne’s disease
- Chronic
- Spread within the herd
- Faeco-oral transmission
- Long incubation period but a short latent period: causes problems as animals are shedding the disease without having signs of it
What are the signs of clinical disease with Johnes?
- Affects older animals (more than 3 years)
- Often after calving due to stress
- Profuse diarrhoea
- Weight loss
- Bottle jaw (swelling)
- Animal remains bright and eating
What is the major transmission route of Johnes?
Faeco-oral
How does Johne’s affect productivity?
- Less milk production
- 5x more likley to be lame
- more likely to develop mastitis and high SCC
- more likely to suffer with digestive/respiratory disease
What are some risk factors for Johne’s?
- Age: resistance to infection increases with age
- Genetics
- Herd management
- Soil type
What are the two types of Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis ?
the slow-growing type I (or S for sheep) and the faster growing type II (or C for cattle)
How can animals be infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis but not infectious?
Cell mediated immune response is protective and halts disease progression. If this falls then the bacteria proliferate and the animal becomes infectious
What are the 4 stages of clinical progression for Johne’s disease?
- Silent infection
- Subclinical disease
- Clinical disease
- Advanced disease
Describe a silent infection with Johnes
No clinical signs, but animals may shed bacteria. Tests will not detect, but faecal
culture may be successful (very low sensitivity at this stage)