Dairy - Associated Diseases

Associated Diseases

• Leptospirosis is one of the most common debilitating diseases of milkers, made somewhat worse since the introduction of herringbone sheds, because of unavoidable direct contact with bovine urine
• Cowpox is one of the helpful diseases; it is barely harmful to humans and tends to inoculate them against smallpox.
• Tuberculosis (TB) is able to be transmitted from cattle mainly via milk products that are unpasteurised. TB has been eradicated from many countries by testing for the disease and culling suspected animals.
• Brucellosis is a bacterial disease transmitted to humans by dairy products and direct animal contact. Brucellosis has been eradicated from certain countries by testing for the disease and culling suspected animals
• Listeria is a bacterial disease associated with unpasteurised milk, and can affect some cheeses made in traditional ways. Careful observance of the traditional cheesemaking methods achieves reasonable protection for the consumer.
• Johne's Disease (pronounced "yo-knees") is a contagious, chronic and sometimes fatal infection in ruminants caused by a bacterium named Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis). The bacteria are present in retail milk, and are believed by some researchers to be the primary cause of Crohn's disease in humans. This disease is not known to infect animals in Australia and New Zealand.