Paratuberculosis vaccine in a large dairy herd

On a 500-cow dairy farm a total of 866 young calves less than one month old were vaccinated with a heat-killed oil-adjuvated bacterin against Mycobacterium paratuberculosis over a period of five years. The vaccinated calves were tested by faecal microscopy, bacteriology and serology on the day of vaccination, at the age of 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, at breeding age, and on the day of calving. A total of 721 bull calves and 379 female calves served as unvaccinated controls in two groups. The results were evaluated by trend analyses. Vaccination greatly reduced the faecal shedding of mycobacteria as demonstrated by the annual faecal microscopic examinations. During the last 6 months of the experiment only 9 of 612 samples were found positive by microscopy and by bacterial culture. The number of seropositive animals and the antibody titres demonstrated by the complement fixation test (CFT) and agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) increased during the first three years. Later on, both the number of seropositive animals and CFT titres decreased.