New technologies battle cattle disease
Ching Ching Wu, a Purdue microbiologist, uses
a diagnostic machine to detect the presence of Johne's disease,
a worldwide illness that affects nearly a quarter of the dairy
cattle herds in the United States.
Photo by Tom Campbell. |
Infection costs producers over $1 billion a year
By Susan Steeves
Purdue University scientists are using their breakthrough molecular
research and other new technologies to slash diagnosis time in a battle
against Johne's disease, a little-known, usually fatal infection causing
$1 billion in U.S. cattle industry losses annually.
The worldwide, chronic illness also known as paratuberculosis
is characterized by weight loss without loss of appetite, diarrhea,
and finally wasting and death. The disease can attack all ruminants
animals with three- or four-chambered stomachs that chew their
cud. Scientists say the malady is closely related to the human Crohn's
disease and affects nearly a quarter of the nation's dairy herds.
"It used to take us 12 to 16 weeks to get a final diagnosis. Now
we can detect the organism as early as two weeks," says Ching Ching
Wu, a microbiologist with Purdue and the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic
Laboratory. "Having the molecular techniques and this fast, large-capacity
system, we will be able to handle a lot of samples in a shorter time
frame. This combined technology can identify clean herds and maintain
their disease-free status by preventing the introduction of infected
animals."
Molecular techniques that Wu and her colleagues developed make the
fast, accurate diagnosis feasible. By coupling her technology with a
new, automated incubation unit, the laboratory can identify highly infected
animals in two to three weeks and those with low levels of infection
in 42 days, far quicker than the traditional time needed for final diagnosis.
The manufacturer, Trek Diagnostics Systems Inc., earlier this year
commercially introduced the new machine, ESP para-JEM system, which
detects growth of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Mpt),
the bacteria that causes Johne's disease.
Page 1 | Page
2
