Emerald goat breeder's warning after Mycoplasma infection claims 300 of her boer goats

Glenda and Collin Valler of Bellarine Boer Goats, first noticed the disease in their goats back in May of 2022, when their goats were kidding.

"What appeared to be perfectly healthy and strong does, just began frothing at the mouth, screaming and dying on me for an unknown reason," Ms Valler said.

"We'd just had goats at the Springsure show and I was concerned that we might have something exotic, so we reported the deaths to both the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity.

"We lost over 100 goats in three weeks and no one from either departments ever attended."

The Vallers were paying for autopsies and for vets to come out to their farm, but all they were getting back were secondary infections reported back to them, either worms or pregnancy toxemia.

Ms Valler got in contact with veterinarian Dr Joan Lloyd in Sydney, who specialises in infectious diseases of small ruminants.

Dr Llyod has researched an extensive range of infectious disease on of farm animals, including bacterial, parasitic and viral diseases.

She has also designed a PCR test, which can detect Mycoplasma bacteria and her test confirmed the disease in the Vallers' herd.

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Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae can affect both sheep and goats and causes a 'silent pneumonia', blindness, lethargy, cough, tachypnea, fever, and nasal and eye discharge.

Ms Valler is using Alamycin LA 300 and tetramycin to treat her affected goats.

The Vallers' ended up caring for 56 poddy kids, because their mothers had died.

"A lot of people have contacted me and had similar mystery deaths in their herds and I would believe that majority of them have got Mycroplasma," she said.

Mycoplasma that causes pneumonia in sheep and goats was actually first discovered in Queensland in the 1960s from sheep.

Dr Lloyd said all farms should have an animal health and biosecurity plan in place to prevent the spread of diseases.

"Mycoplasma are a type of rudimentary type of bacteria and they live in close association with the mucous membrane, so the nose, the lining of the lungs," Dr Llyod said.

"I think it's now starting to resurface because we have all these new testing technologies we have developed.

"When there's a herd or flock that hasn't been exposed to the mycoplasma bacteria before and a new animal, whether that could be a single ram or buck that's infected and then spreads that infection, that can be a significant issue for them."

Dr Llyod said when detected early, infections can be treated.

"I think it's really important that when people buy new animals that before they introduce them into their herd, that they've thought through the quarantine and the testing of those animals to make sure those new animals don't bring in any new diseases," she said.

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