PILOT STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING MAINTENANCE OF MYCOBACTERIUM, SALMONELLA, E. COLI AND LISTERIA ON DAIRY FARMS

The objective of this agreement is to build upon a long-term project designed to evaluate the impact of intervention strategies on Johne¿s disease dynamics, milk and beef quality (particularly with respect to zoonotic bacterial pathogens), economics and sustainability through intensive longitudinal follow up of well-characterized research/demonstration dairy farms. Long-term goals are to validate intervention strategies to support best management practices (BMPs) and to optimize intervention and monitoring strategies given the constraints on time, labor and financial resources in modern dairy herds. In addition, a national resource bank (data and biological specimens on well-characterized animals) will be maintained for current and future monitoring and research on dairy cattle diseases. Emphasis will be on longitudinal data collection on endemic infectious diseases of public and animal health concern.