Register of Herds in the Johne's Disease Calf Accreditation Program - JDCAP
JDCAP is a rigorously audited calf-rearing program designed to minimise the risk of spreading bovine Johne’s disease (BJD), should it be present, from adult cattle to the replacement calves reared within a dairy herd.
Calves raised under an accredited rearing system have a lower risk of having BJD than non-accredited calves.
This register is provided by DPI as a service to those producers who are involved in JDCAP and may have cattle for sale, and for those producers who are seeking JDCAP reared cattle as herd replacements.
Aims of the JDCAP
The accreditation program aims to reduce the risk of calves becoming infected with the BJD bacterium by preventing calves from having contact with manure and dairy effluent from adult cattle and reducing exposure to potentially contaminated milk.
The JDCAP program does not guarantee the production of BJD-free calves.
Eligible herds
All dairy herds are eligible to enter JDCAP.
Accreditation requirements
No blood testing of the herd is required.
Participating owners must agree to observe certain conditions:
- The property must be subject to inspection and approval by an approved veterinarian prior to the commencement of accreditation.
- All replacement calves must be separated from their mother within 12 hours of birth.
- Cows must calve in an area that is free of dairy effluent or large amounts of manure.
- The calf-rearing area must be free of any dairy effluent or cow manure.
- Only clean water, preferably tank, town or bore water, must be supplied for calves for drinking or preparing calf milk-replacer.
- Only milk from low-risk cattle or calf milk-replacer must be fed to calves.
- Once calves are weaned they can only graze paddocks that have not been grazed by adult cattle during the previous 12 months
- The grazing area for weaned calves must be free of any drainage or effluent.
The owner then signs a Herd Owner Agreement, which isendorsed by the approved veterinarian. The veterinarian then provides the herd owner with a JDCAP registered Certificate Of Compliance.
Information you may wish to consider prior to the purchase of breeding cattle
Before purchasing breeding cattle it is important to consider
- the current BJD status of the vendor’s herd
- the current BJD status of your herd
- the calf rearing practices on the vendor’s property
- the number of cattle being purchased
- experience from previous purchases from the same source
- the impact that introducing animals might have on the BJD status of your herd
- the risk that animals from that herd could introduce disease into your herd
- the calf rearing practices on the purchaser’s property
- the long-term management plans for your herd
Purchasers should request a Dairy BJD Assurance Score Declaration with every consignment of cattle purchased.
This is a formal, written method of providing much of the information a purchaser needs to make an informed decision about buying dairy cattle.
Further Information
Further information about JDCAP can be obtained from Animal Health staff at your nearest DPI office or your veterinary practitioner.
DPI implies and provides no warranty for calves traded as a result of information sourced from this website and the site is provided simply as a service to producers.
