It’s the start of goat breeding season! Before you dive in and hire a stud or buy baby goats, it’s important to learn about a few diseases goats can carry and transmit to their babies so you can do what you can to prevent the spread of illness and ensure your next generation of goats are healthy.
Goats can be infected with CAE and show no signs of the disease for years. Boo. This is a painful, debilitating disease, so you really don’t want to be passing it on to your babies. Testing prior to breeding is recommended as the disease is passed down from mother to baby through milk, among other ways.
Blood samples can be mailed to Pan Am Lab for testing — their test is only $6.00 per goat! Additional tests for CL, Johne’s & Brucellosis are also available. Some of these diseases can be passed to humans, so these tests are really important if you’re handling goats or drinking raw milk.
BioTracking.com also offers the CAE test and has a kit you can order with the collection tubes and needles as well. They also have instructions on how to draw the blood on their website. I’ve found several youtube videos on how to draw blood from a goat very helpful. Once you find the vein, it’s really easy.
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