Prevention or control of Johne s takes commitment and time. Half-hearted attempts to prevent or control the disease will generally fail. Once the pathogen is brought into a herd the infection can spread through the herd for a few years before clinical cases are noticed. A typical herd control program may take five years or longer. A shorter period is possible, but may be more expensive.
Prevention is in all ways cheaper than control.
Many other pathogens that affect dairy cattle are also transmitted via the fecal-oral route. Therefore, prevention should be the goal of every farm that is currently free of the disease. Prevent introduction of the microbe by closing the herd to infected replacement or herd-addition animals and guard against entry of equipment, feed and water contaminated with manure. Current diagnostic tests for Johne s are adequate tools for use in disease prevention at the herd level. However, they have low accuracy in detecting the early stages of infection, even in mature animals.