I have raised goats for years with verry few problems . Could someone tell me what C A V is ? I love this sight if it ever gos to a password sight sign me up would hate to lose the best sight on the net. Indiana Country Friend Jack Bunyard

-- Jack Bunyard (bunyard@cnz.com), July 13, 2001

Answers

Jack if you have had goats for years, than either with your own old stock or stock, have you seen big knees, we used to think it was arthritis. Now we know it is the CAE virus that is passed from Mom to kids via her first milk, colostrum. It is also passed in the milk, the blood and lesser in degree some body fluids. It stands for Caprine, which is goat, Encephilitis, which is the brain portion of this disease, causing neurological death of kids mostly, Arthritis, which is the swollen knees, hocks etc. of goats. It now has a sort of twist to it in hard unproductive udder. There is a cheap test for this, with two different test, AGID which is the old fashion test with very poor results, and ELISA which is newer, better at telling you if you have the disease. What no test can tell you is if the animal has it latent in their system, the tests can only tell you if the virus is in the blood, semen, body fluids or colostum. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 14, 2001.

Excellent explanation, Vicki. You are a good teacher!

Welcome to Freedom, Jack! I can't say right now whether it ever will go to password or not, but will certainly keep you apprised. God bless!

-- Doreeen (bisquit@here.com), July 14, 2001.

Thanks so much for your answer . Indiana Country Friend Jack Bunyard

-- Jack bunyard (bunyard@cnz.com), July 16, 2001.