Norton believed that nationally Johne’s in deer was largely under control and had followed a cycle similar to what was experienced in the dairy industry.
“It kicked the guts out of deer in the 90s but now there’s a low prevalence on most farms and only a very few with a serious issue.”
Trading deer and stress, brought about by weaning, extreme weather and underfeeding were the main ways of bringing on a challenge.
“Compounding stresses are a reoccurring theme with Johne’s.”
For that reason Norton recommended letting fawns settle in a familiar paddock after weaning before trucking them off to a new home.
While JML was there to offer practical help in dealing with the disease it also had available, free of charge to all deer farmers, production figures such as the average kill date, average slaughter weights, average carcaseweights, and lesion rates. These figures could be benchmarked against regional and national figures.
“We have a huge resource sitting there to be mined by farmers – our aim is to give you the stuff that will be most useful.”
