Detection of Low MAP Shedder Prevalence in Large Free-Stall Dairy Herds by Repeated Testing of Environmental Samples and Pooled Milk Samples.

An easy-to-use and affordable surveillance system is crucial for paratuberculosis control. The use of environmental samples and milk pools has been proven to be effective for the detection of subsp. (MAP)-infected herds, but not for monitoring dairy herds certified as MAP non-suspect.

Variation in the Performance of Different Batches of Two Subspecies Antibody ELISAs Used for Pooled Milk Samples.

Regionally, the monitoring of paratuberculosis at the herd level is performed by the detection of specific antibodies in pooled milk samples by ELISA. The negative/positive cut-off S/P values applied for pooled milk samples are low and particularly vulnerable to variation in the test performance. In this study, a batch variation in the test performance of two ELISA tests was assessed to identify consequences for sample classification.

Detection of Subspecies in Pooled Fecal Samples by Fecal Culture and Real-Time PCR in Relation to Bacterial Density.

Within paratuberculosis control programs subsp. (MAP)-infected herds have to be detected with minimum effort but with sufficient reliability. We aimed to evaluate a combination of random sampling (RS) and pooling for the detection of MAP-infected herds, simulating repeated RS in imitated dairy herds (within-herd prevalence 1.