Post by lacaune on Feb 12, 2015 8:33:54 GMT -5
Sorry, we do not test our animals for everything. There are several hundred sheep on this farm, extensive testing would be too costly. If a customer requests a test, it is done at the buyers expense.
We are not necessarily in the breeding stock business. The majority of our income comes from the sale of milk, dairy products and meat lambs. Breeding stock sales account for less than 10% of the farms annual income. Having said that, we have sold several hundred sheep across the country and into Canada. Dairy sheep are very few and hard to come by in this country so we get a lot of calls from interested people. Even more so now that we are one of only two sources of Awassi genetics in the USA. Never has a buyer asked about CL or having animals tested for it, nor has a customer ever complained that sheep they bought from us had CL. This is the first and I did not sell directly to the person with an issue.
A few years ago we sold a large group of ewes along with the University of Wisconsin, whom knowingly has CL, to a veterinarian in California who was starting a sheep dairy. She did not ask anything about CL or request any testing other than what the state of California requires. I never heard from this person again and I'm guessing she has animals with CL since we know the UW flock has it.
When our boys were young we bred registered Nubian dairy goats and were one of the first farms in Wisconsin to breed Boer goats. We showed goats at several shows in this part of the state. The show rules on CL were always the same, any animal with a ripe balding abscess was not allowed to show, all other abscesses were accepted. I saw a lot of abscesses and not a whole lot of people concerned about it.
I've seen people spend a lot of money testing, culling and vaccinating, only to end up with CL in their herds and flocks.
I think the majority of people don't take CL as seriously as the few that have been commenting on this tread. Not saying it is good, bad or otherwise, just that it is the way it is. And until enough people become concerned enough to demand mandatory testing, it will probably stay this way.