Control of ovine Johne's disease in New South Wales (Australia)

Accelerating spread of Johne's disease (JD) between sheep flocks in New South Wales (Denholm, 1996) has caused considerable concern in the Australian sheep industry. Without a full-scale disease control program it seems likely that ovine JD will continue to spread throughout the climatically suitable pastoral areas of south-eastern Australia which are currently populated by more than 50 million sheep. Johne's disease therefore has the potential to cause significant loss to the Australian sheep industry through mortality Loss of production and interference with breeding programs. The disease is already causing considerable disruption to sheep trading within Australia and has the potential to disrupt international trade in live sheep and sheep meat products. During 1995 a Johne's Disease Sheep Industry Steering Committee (JD-SISC) was formed by the NSW sheep industry with the specific objective to take "inzmediate action to control the spread of Johne's disease in sheep in Australia." A Strategic Plan for control of JD in sheep in NSW has been developed and endorsed by the sheep industry and the NSW Department of Agriculture. This Plan will give priority to procedures for reducing further spread of JD infection in sheep and includes detailed proposals for tracing of infected flocks, written declarations of the disease status of sheep for sale, a market assurance scheme based on flock testing, the gazettal of specific Johne's Disease Control Areas (Protected/Control/Residual) with sheep movement restrictions between these areas and special "slaughter only" sales for disposal of infected sheep. it is proposed in the plan that affected producers will be offered financial assistance under a contractual agreement to implement an approved Property Disease Eradication Plan negotiated between the scheme and affected producers. The Strategic Plan also includes detailed communication and research strategies.