A Canadian researcher wants to hear from Australian dairy farmers about their experiences with Bovine Johne’s Disease.
Dr Paul Burden, from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary, Canada, is researching the factors that influence decision making regarding Bovine Johne’s disease (JD) control on dairy farms.
BJD is a debilitating wasting disease affecting cattle and other ruminant species, well known to dairy farmers in Australia and Canada.
Dr Burden said Australia had a comprehensive control policy, which has undergone significant revisions over time.
Although Canada had voluntary JD programs offering advice for controlling JD, it did not have a formal testing and certification policy and support program.
«Learning what did and did not work for Australia would be valuable to Canadian dairy farmers, policy formulators, and JD researchers including developers of JD vaccines and differentiation tests,» Dr Burden said.
The research will look at the benefits and drawbacks of BJD control, including understanding the role of a vaccine and how learnings from Australia could be applied in Canada.
This study will ask farmers to answer a series of questions regarding their dairy farm characteristics, animal health and biosecurity, attitudes and perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of the Australian bJD control program, and some basic demographics.
All responses are anonymous and will be aggregated; no individual responses will be identifiable.
The questionnaire should take 20 minutes or less to complete.
Anyone who wants to help with the research can click on the link to the survey here.